Orwell was Right

Thursday, September 5, 2008

Leah and I visited the Soane Museum this morning. I didn’t know quite what to expect, but it is by far my favorite of all the museums I’ve been to. If authenticity has been my running theme for what makes a good museum, this one meets that requirement perfectly. Basically, this guy Sir John Soane was a Neo-classical architect who tore down three townhouses in Holborn to build his dream house. The use of light in the architecture was incredible, something I hadn’t seen in many other buildings from the 18th and 19th centuries. More interesting, though was his collection of…everything. This museum definitely beats the V&A and the British Museum for collection of all collections, even if it isn’t as big. In his house is Soane’s private collection of over 7,000 books, his paintings, architectural statues and pieces of various buildings from all over Europe. The best was the sarcophagus of Pharaoh Seti I, and one of the museum guides read the hieroglyphics for us, describing the soul’s passage to heaven, according to the Egyptians. It was fascinating. The most wonderful thing about the museum, though, is that the entire house has been kept in the same order as it was when Soane established it as a museum in 1837. It must be a haven for architecture enthusiasts, but I can’t imagine living in a house that is that crammed with significant artifacts. It reminded me of Hearst Castle (though not as obnoxiously grand) and, consequently of the final scene in Citizen Kane when they’re sorting through his collection of stuff and it’s all laid out in the foyer. Surprisingly, though, as much stuff as Soane had, the house didn’t seem cluttered. One of my peers described it as a pack-rat’s paradise, but I actually thought that everything was well organized and fit its space nicely. I can’t even fathom having that many artifacts. I’d be thrilled to have even one such item, and here Soane had an entire house full of things that belonged in a museum (which is probably why he left his house as one. Go figure).

In the afternoon we all went to 70 Whitehall, the Cabinet Office, and met with Robert Hannigan, Security Advisor to the Prime Minister, and members of various counter-terrorism departments to talk about terrorism in the U.K. and the 42-day detention policy. The fear of terrorist attacks is a lot older in the U.K. than in America, as we are consistently reminded, and, while no one denies the tragedy of 9/11, there seems to be a great British sense of “Oh, we’ve been through worse.” The Blitz is still very fresh in people’s minds, it seems, and the recent wave of terrorism is no worse than the Blitz or the IRA attacks. They made a point of stating, though, how different this wave of terrorism is, since they aren’t fighting a government but groups of radicals without national loyalties, and since these terrorists have no political agenda. They only want to terrorize and their goal is mass casualties, which is very different from past attacks. Because of this, the British government’s strategies have had to change. There’s a lot of anti-radical propaganda being distributed in the large British Pakistani populations, but apparently the Muslim population has been largely supportive.
I was most interested in the public relations aspect of these new tactics and the government’s attempts to limit racial profiling, since any targeting of the large Muslim population could be detrimental to the image of the government. They assured me that they keep in close contact with the Muslim population and use every opportunity they can to boost the government’s image. They told us that they recently had a case where a radical white Muslim convert had been coming to his mosque with burnt hands and arms. His imam reported him to the police, and it was discovered that he had been building a bomb.
We talked a lot about surveillance for safety purposes, and how CCTV wouldn’t work in the U.S. I think the immediate reaction at home would be that the concept of large-scale surveillance would be perceived as “Big Brother is Watching You!” Here, that fear of Orwellian authority is only in the event that CCTV falls into the wrong hands. We discussed how these measures only work if the population trusts the government. I think in Britain the people trust the government more than in the U.S., where we tend to be more wary of it and to constantly assume that it’s up to something.

Our other major topic of discussion was the U.K.’s 42-day detention policy, which is currently being debated in Parliament and is expected to be passed. Basically what it states is that the government, with sufficient concern, has the right to hold a suspected criminal for 42 days before a charge is given. They said that this is necessary because, in the case of a suspected terrorist, for example, it gives the authorities enough time to collect evidence to charge him. The nature of terrorism is changing, and with increased globalization and access to technology, evidence is more difficult to collect. This is in sharp contrast to both the U.S. and many other European countries. In the States, the maximum amount of time a suspect can be held is 2 days, and in France it is 4 days. This policy has become the center of a hot debate in the E.U. because of their dedication to standardizing human rights laws.

I guess this brings me to another interesting topic about British Government. In Parliament Square, across from Westminster Hall, Britain is building its first Supreme Court building. As soon as it’s finished in the next year, the Law Lords will move from their seats in the House of Lords into the new Supreme Court building, and, for the first time, Great Britain will have a separate judiciary. Much of this is due to the fact that the U.K. is now part of the E.U. and will have to make sure that its laws are in compliance with E.U. standards, which would be controversial if the Law Lords were left in Parliament, since the debates over the laws would occur where the laws themselves are made. Rather exciting for Britain.

So, although I’m not really one for politics, it was definitely an interesting day. Many of us were noting that, in the last two days, we’ve met more important people from the British government than we’ve even seen of our own. Not your usual tourist experience, and it really is amazing. After the meeting, Chris, Lauren, Jen, Alana, Katie, and I stopped at a café on Whitehall and got snacks. Later we got dinner at Sainsbury’s and ate in the Breakfast Room. We were supposed to meet at the Royal Albert Hall in South Kensington for the BBC Proms, but we hadn’t anticipated how long a walk it would be from the Tube station, and we ended up getting there 15 minutes late. We had to wait until there was a break in the performance before we were allowed to go up to our seats, which meant that we missed a good half an hour of the Elgar portion of the concert. The concert was beautiful, but it was the breaks between movements that were truly entertaining. No one claps between movements because the piece isn’t over yet, but everyone coughs. The minute there’s a pause, it seemed like everyone in the hall coughed. It was hilarious.
I wish I knew more about music so that I could accurately describe how wonderful the Elgar and the Tchaikovsky’s 6th Symphony that followed were...but I don’t. Just take my word for it.