Wednesday 30 July 2003

Musical note

The bureaucrats of middle-England have shown some initiative:
BEETHOVEN’S Ninth Symphony is to be played continuously in a multi-storey car park in an attempt to drive away rough sleepers.

The composer’s work - which includes the well-known melody Ode To Joy - will run on a loop 24 hours a day at the John Street car park in Stoke-on-Trent during a two-month trial.

I can't help wondering about the choice of music. There's nothing wrong with Beethoven, but I note that Ode to Joy is the anthem of the European Union. Perhaps the EUSR has given the good folk of Stoke a financial incentive to broadcast wall-to-wall Euro-music. If so, we should reciprocate. We must insist that the car parks of Brussels be equipped to play Land of Hope and Glory or Rule Britannia. Non-stop.