The Birmingham Post from Birmingham, West Midlands, England • 17

The Birmingham Post, September 27. 1969 Britain analysed A PASSIVE TALENT Character and Style in English Politics. By J. H. Grainger.

(Cambridge University Press. 505.) An amoral science? SOCIOLOGISING THE SOCIOLOGISTS Three working class Victorians take their ease and their ale outside a London pub in 1877, one of the many fascinating pictures from VICTORIAN AND EDWARDIAN LONDON FROM OLD PHOTOGRAPHS (Botsford a haunting collection introduced and commented upon by John Betjeman. The three men look comfortable enough. but the sort of districts they may hare bred in were not so comfortable, according to many photographs here. Realistically.

Sir John comments that. despite an urge to lament the London that has disappeared, "I realise that we have only changed one sort of bad for another sort of bad." By T. W. HUTTON IN an exciting book Mr. Grainger adroitly combines a comprehensive portrait gallery of English politicians with a speculative analysis of the conditions in which they have worked from Tudor times to the present day.

The portraits are both original and brilliant: many, readers will judge them Mr. rainger's real achievement. As many, however, 11 find even better worth while his analysis of conditions in which those politicians have worked. The approach Is historical. Mr.

Grainger starts with the Wolsey and Crammer and Cecilwho were merely the talented advisers of an all-powerful Sovereign; studies next the Georgians, whose "Court and Country" politicians sought variously to acoommodate the Royal prerogative to the emergence of other powers: and ends with the post-Georgian polician adjusting himself to a party system itself in flux. Whatever the circumstances, the must always commend himself, challenge greatness, by character and style. What these mean Mr. Grainger explains partly in direct statement, more subtly be illustration in such chapters as "Labour's lost leaders" and the presumptive virtue of Conservatives." Style and character, he holds, are closely Interrelated: there is no style without character and character Is demonstrated only in the two fused in action, What Mr. Grainger has In mind.

though, is best shown by his essays on politicians, quite apart from their intrinsic merit. His unflattering Bolingbroke stands beside a eulogy of Halifax. Later, the two Pitts are contrasted. Later still, Melbourne and Gladstone and Disraeh. Randolph Churchill, one of Burke's "turbulent discontented men of quality stands beside the younger Joseph Chamberlain.

Nearer the present day, the portraits are more numerous and more Significant. Penetrating studies of Lloyd George and Winston Churchill. acute judgments on Milner and Smuts. a portrait of Eden, friendly and understandingthese and other essays lead on to Mr. Grainger's unusual view of the English attitude to politicians.

dislikes those who, with their own fixed ideas of what the nation should want, force it on her. It prefers those who, rightly divining what it does want, seek to ease the path to that goal. Her bestloved leaders "do no more than express her will and spirit." Study A BLEAK OUTLOOK Further Education In England and Wales. By L. M.

Cantor and I. F. Roberts. (Routledge. VURTHER EDUCATION in this country usually taken to mean full- or education vocational or general beyond compulsory school age in institutions other than universities and Colleges of Education) Is a triumph of Improvisation.

and for that reason Impassible to describe briefly. The authors of this book have, however, given us an up-to-date, clear and very timely account of It. supported by useful atmendlces. The Education Act of 1944 made Local Authorities responsible for providing adequate facilities for further education. In the next ten years there developed a pattern of al Colleges.

Area Colleges iii tr focal Colleges. The Regional Colleges, offering courses at graduate and postgraduate level, became Colleges of Advanced Technology tC A si, and, since 1963, technical universities, awarding their own degrees. This development had been foreshadowed by the Percy Rtoort of 1945. 1984 the Council for National Academic Awards has awarded degrees to students in institutions other than and has thus broken the university monopoly. Meanwhile, efforts were made to increase the day-release of young employees for technical training.

But the further education of school-leavers has not prospered as was hoped. This is in fact the weakest part of our further education system (as compared. for example. with Germany). The County Colleges, promised In the Act of 1944, never came.

The Evening Institutes have done valuable work under the most discouraging conditions. The Industrial Training Act of 1964 aimed at developing a highly trained and adaptable labour force, but included no power to compel the co-operation of industry. In a final chapter on the Future of Further Education, the authors discuss the most recent developments (such as the new-style Polytechnics, and the most pressing problems (such as staffstudent relations); but they see the outlook for further education In the next ten years as 'somewhat bleak." M. V. C.

JEFFREYS Sociology in Britain: A Survey of Research. By Ernest Krausz, (Botsford. 415.) Ethics, Politics and Social Research. Ed. Gideon Sjoberg.

(Routledge. 505.) SOCIAL studies are a growth activity In this country. University faculties in sociology multiply even faster than universities and outpace other faculties Inside them. Over two dozen trusts and institutions give funds for social research and publication undertaken by Individuals or teams. most of whom are connected with universities or institutes.

Several hundred projects can be listed, in industrial relations, immigrant studies, poverty, class mobility, the family, delinquency, ho usi ng political sociology, work and leisure, religion, and general social theory. Sociological research and teaching in this country is, to a greater or lesser extent, dovetailed with economics, anthropology, government studies or political science. social work, and the growing race-relations industry" whose access to substantial private and government funds makes it an important patron. Mr. Krausz marshals the main facts concerning these developments in his earnest but Pedestrian survey.

He does not attempt a qualitative assessment. Yet without it. the study limps somewhat. The author quotes Indiscriminately and gives equal weight to scrupulous scholars and left- By ALFRED SHERMAN wing crusaders whose research is "policy-oriented" ---to use one of their own designed to provide ammunition for cam- Feigns. In a sense, Mr.

Krausz is an innocent. In another sense he displays the classic intellectual's familiar deformation proftssionelle in that he applies the tools of his trade to everyone himself. The adage "physician heal thyself" needs translating Into soctologis, try to analyse the motivations and Irrationtil elements the behaviour of your fellow-sociologists." Prof. Sjoberg's book goes much further into professional introspection its 14 essays deal with ethical problems of research sociologists. They range from the controversy of research into Latin- American revolutions undertaken for the American defence department to dilemmas of field workers among delinquent gangs.

At what point will a ield worker abandon moral neutrality? If he. as a citizen, has knowledge of felonious activities he is bound in law to inform the authorities. Yet a research worker with delinquents would certainly have to turn a blind eye to some activities if his study was to last mote than a few days. But till what degree of seriousness? And what would he do if the police came to him with direct questions? The social scientists hares with the natural scientist his concern for the purposes to which his research will be put, by government or business) He is less ready to question how much government and public money should be spent on sociological research when it might be used for direct alleviatiou of suffering or poverty. So far as I know, none of the sociologists who criticise what they call "waste" of resources in face of world poverty, be It the moon-race, armaments, commerical research into cosmetics and new cars, have questioned the flow of public funds into sociological research, some of it quite trite and often undertaken Just to give favoured graduate students something do or for professional empire-building.

One last question. Sociology is designed to give men greater insight into society and themselves. Surely priority should be given into what makes sociology students and sonic of their teachers act in the way which has made LSE, Essex and Sussex Universities a by-word? What a pity that neither book tackled this. Surely this points to the need for a of but It may be too important to be entrusted to sociologists. Planners and doers HOPES OF A CREATIVE DIALOGUE (Faber.

80s.) monitoring and control must treat the private and public sector on equal footing. 'Capital projects in the public sector housing. hospitaLs, schools. swimming pools, roads, generating stations. transport termini, shopping centres and so planning legislation and administration in the past has allowed a great deal of public developments to occur without planning as a result, a great deal of mischief has been The author is under no illusions regarding the complexity and difficulties of the model building Job.

having worked on it himself and kept in touch with what is being done elsewhere in the U.B. and U.B.A. But he holds out several reasons for optimism. First, once constructed models can be refined and up-dated with effortminimal simultaneously with control and monitoring. Secondly, a great deal of the information needed is already being collected by some authority or institution, so that the problem is more of collating and storing information where it is needed.

Thirdly, as he points out. cities and regions are very largely selfregulating. The human-dominated system of the planet's ecology has been managing fairly well for 200.000 years or so without the benefit of statutory planning because of the enormous amount of built-in control." This insight goes a long way to differentiate Mr. McLottn's lipproach from that of his predecessors. the crusading planners.

They saw themselves as coming to bring order to chaos. He sees urban and regional planning as the injection of more conscious control and longer foresight into a process of social self-regulation. He concludes with the observation that the systems approach ought to induce a greater degree of humility in the planners thenselves the self-Image of planners can be traced back 0... middle-class paternalists. utopians and professional advisers of the postures of knowing best what others need and making people happy through Impro ed physical forms." He cpunterposes the view of planning as one element in the complex pattern of human existence, of which the planner's work at the best deals with only one small facet.

"If we can raise their performance levels by but a few degrees, we can congratulate ourselves." If. as there is some cause for hoping, Mr. McLoughlin's brilliant essay comes to serve as textbook or handbook for regional planners in this country, the chances of creative dialogue between planners han and cedoers will be greatly en- Urban and Regional Planning: A Systems Approach. By J. Brian 8 1.11.te 20 years of town and country planning, ushered on the crest of postwar optimism, a new generation of planners and research workers has grown up to Judge the arrangements on the basis of achievement rather than promise.

Insofar as the generation-gap means anything in this context, it is that the focus of discussion has shifted from whether we should plan to how we should and should not plan. So long as planners were on the defensive, critiques of the planning process, however wellfounded, were resisted. Now, the more intelligent planners are prepared to look at their work in the round and go back to first principles. Mr. McLoughlin is emerging as one of the ablest spokesmen for his generation of town planners.

His book sums up conclusions drawn in 15 years of alternate university teaching, research and practical work, which included directing the Leicester-Leicestershire Joint planning study before returning ta Manchester University. He points out that "despite the great advances made in the last two decades there remain formidable problems in the theory and practice of physical He secs the major weakness of the present system in Its concept of land-use control by planners who claim to know what is good for others. In Its place, he offers a systems approach based on four categories: activities. locations, communications and channels. To these.

he adds the further dimension of time. AN activities use space and create travel of goods or people which use channels railway lines, telephone systemsi. The job of the planner, as he sees it. begins with a model of activities and movements, and proceeds by projecting this in time. Activities generate traffic, but "channels." e.g.

new roads. benerate activities. Against this ackground of self -i nduced change. the planner is able to analyse the effect of any propouls, be it housing. industry, highways.

This systems view brings control into perspective as monitoring, forecasting and advising. Mr. McLoughlin stresses that Romantic picture of a turn of the century tea-shop, once to be men in Ragland. Mill to be seen i trent SHOPS by Renee Huggett, another attra ctive volume in latsferd's interesting Post-into-Present series (las. Renee Muggett traces the social and ecenewic history of.

shops hest the medieval guilds to the Consumer Association and Council. SATURDAY MAGAZINE Fantasy world of the Midnight Cowboy By MICHAEL BILLINGTON JOHN SCHLESINGER'S films have in the past shown a consuming interest in the gap between fantasy and reality (Billy Lion and a bleakly accurate eye for social detail (A Kind of Loving and Darling). grudging. yet genuine, need for each other that they come close to the of their real selves. As well as arousing an intense compassion for the central the film also provides a biting attack on the dream-peddiers of American society.

Commercialised radio pours out an unending team of drivel ithe cowboy realises he's approaching New York not because of the skyscrapers in front of him but because his transistor tells him soi, television sees life as one continuous-chat-show. and the values of Madison Avenue advertising are projected from every possible vantage-point. One reason for the stunning success of his latest work. Midnight Cowboy, is that at last he has the chance to combine his two chief preoccupations. It is both a story of two trapped and lonely dreamers and an indictment of the society that nourishes their fantasies.

Tae eponymous hero (played by Jon Wight) is a tough-seeming, beef-witted Texan who comes to New York in the hope of profitably seducing all the city's rich. sex-starved women. As he constantly assures everyone. he may not be a for-real cowboy but he's sure one heluva stud. Gradually we watch the crumbling of his dream.

He is taken for a ride by all the sma7t city folk, is reduced to picking up 42nd street homosexuals in the of robbing them and finds companionship only with Ratso Rizzo (Dustin Hoffman), a crippled Italianate conman. In a world of such mass-communicated triviality, who is to blame if human beings allow their lives to be dominated by internal fantasy? Ttie performances, of course, do a lot to make the film as exciting as It is. And there seems to me little point in debating whether Voight or Hoffman steals the show. It is not a histrionic contest: the two performances are complementary. Stunted.

unshaven and rodentlike. Hoffman undergoes the more remarkable physical transformation while Voight captures exactly the Texan's bewildered resent- Both men are frustrated fantasists and St it through their A decisive board from a county match WARWICKSHIRE pl ayed L. Levey, Mr. and Mrs. D.

Jones, county matches versus L. A. Douce, P. Millar. Dr.

and Derbyshire last week-end. In Mrs. L. A. Best.

the first team match Warwick- The last set of boards 25-32 was shire took an early lead of decisive; both Warwickshire teams three thousand points but lost about two thousand points in Derbyshire came back well and it. Two successive slam hands in this set caused trouble. On board finished only one hundred 28 East was the dealer with Eastpoints down for a draw, West vulnerable. 14. on victory points.

NORTH This score was, in fact, sufficient to ensure that Warwickshire re- 4 3 BP 9 7 2 tains the Dawes Trophy for an- 96 5 4 other year. although still 103 have one match to play. Derbyshire won the second team match by 1.160 points. 2-1 in victory points. The teams were: Warwickshire D.

Valley. G. B. Moffat. P.

G. F. Whitehouse, D. N. Collins.

B. G. White, M. A. Wilson.

Mr. and Mrs. E. J. Armstrong.

Warwickshire Hi M. A. Porter. WEST 543 AK7 EAST 4AK982 96 SOUTH 765 9764 I'm backing Sutton for the league cup By PETER GIBBS AFTER nine rounds of the Russian championship, with 14 rounds remaining, the early leaders are Petrosian and Savon. closely followed by Geller and Smyslov who have adjourned games.

Tal, in spite of Illness in the opening stages, is still taking part. As teams prepare for the first matches in the Birmingham League, it is interesting to size up their possibilities. This year the Birmingham club, in spite of its vast reservoir of players, will find its resources fully stretched by three teams in division I. Keith Richardson has taken a banking job in London and Richard Hall will not be playing any more chess while he studies for his law examinations. John Crampton and George Hill have also had to drop out.

On paper the league division I championship looks as if could be a struggle between the holders, Wolverhampton Kipping. and Button Coldfleld. My forecast would be on Button, who have a very compact side. WRITE: PLANINC BLACK: MANANGUNIC PIAC DEFENCE Birmingham, last year's winners. have taken the lead in the weekend league competition by Westing Leicester by 8 points to 4.

The top board results. with 13 ham names first. were: 1. X. B.

Richardson I. P. 0. Killick 2. R.

V. M. Hall 1, Hardy 3, P. C. Gibbs 1 L.

A. Edwards 4, T. Ooodhill le, M. Broadhurst Se; 5, Julius Silverman 1, C. Cordel O.

Julius Silverman won early with a slashing attack and shows that although he may be out of practice, he is still an extremely strong player. Nuneaton and the Wolverhampton league are 21.2-2 1 2 with three games for adjudication, but Nuneaton may emerge as the winners. On top board J. A. Fuller and G.

Homer drew. Chess bliormator No. 7 has been received the last few days. It covers more than 800 games played in the first six months of the year and. as usual, Is filled with information for the serious student.

Here is just one game from it. The 25-year-old Jugoslav Planmc was the surprise winner of the Ljubliana tournament ahead of 10 grandmasters earlier this year. This game from another event shows that his result was not a flash-m-tbe-pan. I. P-K4, P-Q3: 2, P-Q4, Kt-KB 3, Kt-QB 3, P- 4, Kt-B3 (4, P-B4 gives White chances), B-Kt3 4 n-K2 a rt B-K3, B-Kts; 7, Q-Q2 (Anothei possibility is 7, 0-0, Kt-B3; 8, P-K5), Kt-133, 8, BKt (8, 7.

ki-fiLi citaii7es ofcoon- tering the centre with P-B3). 9. Kt-K4; 10 MCB.4 P-B4; 11, P-R6 P-QKt 12, B-R6, KtxRP: 13, Bxl3, 14, 000. P-B4 (The open ales spell danger for Black); 15, QR-K4l, IC-R1; 16, Q-RS, Kt-B2: 17. QT.KtP (A bright queen sacrifice against an unprotected king), Pia 15.

Rs.P, Kt-R3; 19. R(DxKt, R-B2; 20, K-Kt2; 21 R-R7 ch. K-Ktl (No better is 31 K-B3; 32, R(5)-R6 ch, K-1014 23, P-B4 cb); 22, R-R8 oh, K-Kt3 23, R(5)-R7 ch. K-Kt3; 34. PIP cb RxP; 25.

Rack Raft; 26, B-Q3 KKR; 27. MLR eh, K-Kt2; 28 KtxP, K-B3: 29. B-Kt4, Resigns (A nicely-played attack). Bridge problem Q. vulnerable.

as South you hold: The has proceeded: South West North Eust 2 2 111 Pase. What do you bid now? la Mooday's Past) ment at finding ttse world is not scrappaig and brandy-swilling exactly as he had imagined. the two men amicably join forces. Schlesinger has not only made Morally the film is impeccable: a technically adroit and pro- it is a salutary hymn to the stirfoundly humane film: he has also cues of forgiving and forgetting, provided the framework for some helping one's neighbour and burymarvellous screen acting. ing hatchets somewhere other One of the myths swallowed than in people's heads.

by the midnight cowboy is that Alas, though, I found myself of the western hero as always secretly wishing for a little more laconically assured and relaxedly conflict and physical excitement. virile. And. enough. When at the end Wayne hands along comes The Undefeated in over his 3,000 horses to the Mewlwhich John Wayne appears es can soldiers in return for the his usual laconically assured and lives of the Confederates and relaxed virile self.

their families, I couldn't resist This time, however. he plays feeling slightly cteated. not a cowboy but a retired Yankee However even if the film offers colonel who after tte civil war no spectacular set pieces (like heads south towards Mexico to The Wild it is directed by sell wild horses to the E'mperce: Andrew V. McLagen with a nice Maximilian. feeling for the rhythm of the Following the same trail is a traditional western and contains retired Confederate colonel.

some exhilarating shots of a mass Hudson) and after a little mild of racing horses. The Inca Sun God Christopher Plummer locks and smells the first book he has ever seen From the forthcoming Rank film The Royal Hunt of the Sun." East. despite his shortage of high-card points. clearly has a good hand and should open One Diamond, his longest suit. West forces with 'three Clubs and East bids Three Spades.

showing his second suit. West probably bids Three No Trumps but East should insist on a suit contract and rebid his second suit, saying Four Spades. West can now count him for six five distribution and takes him to Six Diamonds, after checking on Aces. The defence probably starts with the Ace of hearts and a second heart ruffed by the declarer. Declarer requires two spade ruffs in dummy to make up twelve tricks.

If he first cashes two top clubs and two top spades and then ruffs two spades high in dummy. he makes his contract. Six Diamonds was bid at five tables but two Warwickshire declarers went one down. One pair played in Three No Trumps and last the first five tricks in hearts. One pair played in Five Diamonds.

making twelve tricks. At the eighth table East opened One Spade instead of One Diamond and finished in Four Spades. The heart Ace was led and followed by a second heart which declarer ruffed. Three rounds of trumps found South on lead again. A third heart forced declarer to use hie last trump.

Diamonds were played and South ruffed the third round. A club ead now locked declarer in dummy and he had to go two down. Derbyshire had a swine of 750 points in the first team match. On board 29 South was dealer with rast-West vulnerable. FAMILY No.

558 I Make Ted's boyhood And a place in William the 9 Beitut down the car plat byond here th iz7 the 17) 10 Simple. frimil and sternly disciplined es of yore. (7) 11 ilisswiers brought back his win with him. (4) 12 A for outtAi vs. about rfyht 13 13 A strons desire Woolen's for the Institute keep if Venus de Milo always looks so defenoelees.

171 17 Even if such a tvansposltion to made the final w.ry it 77t 111 18 Edwards School Went to a place in Caithness then one in the Lake District. 171 21 A man may get rebus with plumy. but he won't pun Its tan. 1441 23 TO large num- I SOLI 74; be an amphibian. (4) Preia version.

(5) 26 A hint is moulted here on behalf of 28 In a pa returning Larne cket Thomaa Hardy fet out ly to captivate. (7) 29 This boat I've redesigned will hove the di 30 88. Lahn landed Its contents in these offshore places. (8. 1 Of whom Athos was ohe member.

ISM 10) 2 I went to Beaton somewhat con- up Republic. (7) 3 There was Just nothing to forbid here in Scotland. 4 Stuck It out and finished up round about a very ancient place. 111 I'd have to return to a stick In IN MONDAY'S F. C.

H. J. N. hand then I'd be ready for a spin. 47) 6 long .111 iiWoluilOn Wag In the system? 7 Acquires whet Is In boats.

(7) 8 Such show of deadens thinkers in an odd sort of 14 What scope there is when a doctor has It (5) 15 Bounds as If I get vocal. but very coldly. (5) le Dispose In comfort wound a L. In Tanerloi. 17) 20 In abort.

polaralum and inlaid lime In our rein mane tram place In Mosoow. 21 Inventive fellow tl weve prepared Sent corn. (7) 22 Hanging about In a curt tort of way. 7) 26 Viva vote. (4) 27 RS no good.

Antony says this will outlive us. (4) POST $K109862 10942 4KIO WT ST EAST .0 AK 10543 4J9762 43 IP A 7 83 .5 SOUTH SQS .987432 There was a varied selection of results on thix deal. Seven pairs reached a slam contract; it Ls difficult not to! In the play for Silt Spades vou have to make two quick tricks in the club suit to give you a diamond discard. A straightforward finesse is right and you are home. One West played South for the club King by playing the Ace first and then running the Queen: he went down.

He could have given himself an extra chance by cuffing the club Six first. This would have succeeded since Norh holds the doubleton King of clubs Two North-South pairs found a sacrifice in the first team match. One South played in Seven Clubs doubled, minus seven. scoring 1.300 for a save of 130. A much more worthwhile sacrifice was Seven Diamonds doubled, minus four, for a mere 700.

One Warwickshire pair In the second team played in Four Spades and one Derbyshire first team pair played in Seven Spades and were allowed to make their contract. In the second team match Derbyshire gained 2.310 points. M. A. P.

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-x i I 5 0 4 1 1 10 01 b. era 4171 i 1 I 14 4 0 1 i) I 4 .7 .) It i I 0( i tit 4 .40, .44, '7: A 0 Ilio. 4 Ilt. I lIMMIIIIIIIMIIIIIIIMIIIIII6I IN IN 111 6111111E11111111 1111111111 lillllll II 111 illiNllllllll II II illll6llllMll 2 611111101116111111 ammo ammo ammo iiilMlllllllllll 611111111111111111 iiillllllllllllllllllllllllllllMll WHAT'S ON IN BIRMINGHAM A Coleshill Street: The Smashing Bird I Used To Know (Renee Asherson and Dennis Waterman). A New Street: The Smashing Bird I Used to Know (Renee Asherson and Dennis Waterman).

Futurist: Frankenstein 1970. Cinephone: Eva: sex-documentary. Scala: The Lion in Winter (retained). Bristol: Where Eagles Dare (retained). Caumont: Ice-Station Zebra (retained).

Odeon: The Battle of Britain (retained)..