Sunday

Working on amendments to the Localism Bill and Education Bill coming up next week, and listening to Paul Tortelier's recording of Bach's cello suites. Maybe one's favourite bits vary from time to time, but my choices at the moment would be Bourée 1 from Suite No 3 in C, Sarabande from Suite No 5, and Gavotte 1 from Suite No 6. I think that if people could be persuaded to listen to Bach's music they would discover how fantastic it all is, and I wish that teachers could be persuaded to try it out in schools. Denying children the right to hear not only the cello suites but some of the cantatas is to deprive them of a right they don't even know is theirs. And I say that while thinking about an amendment to the Education Bill to opt out of collective worship, because one doesn't have to believe the religious myths to grasp the universal messages the words of the cantatas convey, or to be inspired by the music which was often recycled for secular occasions.