The Wardman Wire

David Keen works for the Church of England as a consultant and local vicar, and is based in Yeovil, England. He blogs at St Aidan to Abbey Manor.

This post is part of a series hosted by Liberal Conspiracy on the recent White Paper Communities in Control: Real People, Real Power. This was published back in July by the Department for Communities and Local Government, and was (sort of) the subject of Hazel Blears much-reported speech last week.

I offered to tackle the chapter on volunteering….

Chapter 2: Active citizens and the value of volunteering
The government wants to “make it easier to be involved in voluntary and community activity” and proposes…..

the full post (click on title) outlines the detailed proposals, and explores concerns over philosophy and practicalities.

The latest Bond outing smashed box office records in its opening weekend. It’s clear from the film’s plot why it’s opening in the UK first, but more of that later. This is very much Casino Royale 2, picking up in plot and feel on its 2006 predecessor, and again reminiscent of the Bourne Trilogy: a movie which stands on its own, but makes more sense if you’ve seen the one before it. Critics have given it mixed reviews, though positive overall.

The other reference point is Batman Begins: these two Bond movies have given themselves breathing space by giving us 007 in the making, and by the end of Quantum of Solace the making seems to be complete.

Plot: Bond is out to avenge the killers of Vesper Lynd, his love interest in Casino Royale. He claims he’s not motivated by revenge, but he spends the entire film pursuing (and killing) a series of contacts around the world who lead him closer and closer to his quarry. On the way he encounters the main baddie - Dominic Greene - who is in cahoots with both the CIA and various South American dictators-in-waiting. Greene blocks off water supplies, destabilises governments, the dictators step in and take over, and Greene gets lots of land in return. And that’s about it: no world destroying megalomaniacs here, but still a nasty piece of work.

At one level this is a huge risk: a staple of the Bond franchise is that the world is under threat and only one man can save it (and the timer on the bomb tell us he only has 30 minutes to do so). Not here. Instead the film relies for drama on Bonds personal crusade, and a plot that actually requires some brainwork to unravel it.

If broadcasters can now use whatever words they like, the only way to shock or push the boundaries is in how you use them, or who you use them to. Instead, the shock has been that there actually was a boundary.

It’s our inability to have a constructive debate about this stuff that got Phil Woolas pulled from Question Time. Can we honestly see that improving if we get out the constitutional scissors?

It starts with a phone call from the undertakers - it’s no reflection on them that my heart sinks every time they ring up. Taking someone’s funeral is an immense privilege, but I’d be lying if I said it was my favourite part of being a vicar.

Whilst the real economy grinds slowly into recession, share prices cry ‘look at me’ as they jump from a cliff. The Gadarine swine, who hurled their demon-possessed porcine bodies into a lake from a cliff-top, are the closest biblical metaphor.