The Politics of Dancing

Well the novelty has certainly worn off. I like increasing numbers of people live alone, the lack of physical face to face contact can start to tell on the psyche. This can be particularly hard in a big city like London in which, paradoxically you are surrounded by people, sometimes only separated by thin walls. For myself I am better equipped for solitude than most, not only used to my own company and remaining alone in the flat* all day. I have a wide range of interests, a love of reading, cooking and music. With modern technology I need never feel at a loss for intellectual stimulation. So, if I am beginning to flag a little, I can only imagine what it must be like for those with less interests or a lack of access to technology. Though I make no special pleading for the solitary. For those unhappily married cooped up all day in a tiny inner city flat with small children and someone they are increasingly beginning to hate the idea of solitude must sound like bliss. The weather, which

1 History, it is said, is written by the winners. This is almost invariably true, but almost  since it only tells half the story since now it can be equally said that history is shaped by those who wrest control over the narrative. Thus, the South lost the American civil war but managed to successfully re-frame the struggle as one between a proud and civilised people who nobly sought to resist an uncouth and bullying centralising state, that went down fighting for independence and state rights. Of the real cause of the war slavery there is little mention. This ‘lost cause’ narrative has lodged itself into American consciousness and is still there and is unlikely to be completely dislodged any time soon. On a much more trivial level there is a classic example of who controls the narrative controls the way events are perceived. In the mid-eighties when the Conservative party was wiped out in much of England during local elections but managed to hold onto Westminster and Wandsworth in