Solomon is a work I have never heard performed before and it was a treat, both musically and verbally for I found the poetry of the libretto most moving too.   The choir and the accompanying Sinfonia Verdi filled the Abbey nave with glorious sound.  My old friend John Manning said he had never heard them in better voice.

The big surprise for me was hearing Solomon sung by a counter-tenor (the brilliant Tim Travers-Brown), presumably to indicate his youth, and the trio between him and the two harlots portraying the Judgement of Solomon was particularly beautiful.

You can read all about the St Albans Bach Choir and find out about their future concerts (highly recommended by this audience member) by visiting their website at http://www.stalbansbachchoir.org.uk/

And how about the last two lines of the oratorio as a theme for the coming election?

The name of the wicked shall quickly be past,

But the fame of the just shall eternally last.

Great stuff!

It must be true – it’s in the bible.  Isaiah chapter 32, verse 8 to be exact.

The New English Bible has a different translation from the original Hebrew  – “The man of noble mind forms noble designs and stands firm in his nobility.”

I am of course very happy to have theological affirmation that it is indeed a noble undertaking to be a Liberal.

I have scoured the bible from end to end and find no reference to Conservatives.  As for Labour, we know that the lilies of the field were praised for not going there, “neither should they spin.”

It certainly makes you think.

Why am I writing this?  Because yesterday I went to St Albans Abbey to speak at the men’s breakfast organised by Dean Jeffrey John.  The verse from Isaiah seemed a suitable introductory text!

I have heard a sermon preached on this verse.  It was given by former Archbishop Michael Ramsey at the great Westminster Abbey service to celebrate the centenary of the Liberal Party in 1977.

The Liberals were the first modern political party, what is less well known is that Michael Ramsey had himself been a Liberal candidate – for Cambridge, though he never stood for election as his religious vocation came to the fore.  But when he was at Cambridge he was told he was a future Liberal Prime Minister and he became Archbishop of Canterbury.  When Gladstone was at Oxford, he was told he was a future Archbishop of Canterbury and he became Liberal Prime Minister.

As I wrote above, it certainly does make you think.

PS I had the privilege of meeting Michael Ramsey once.  It was after he had retired as Archbishop and he came to preach through Holy Week at Little St Mary’s, the parish church I attended at Cambridge.  Ramsey was staying with the James Owen, the vicar.  I was a young man working temporarily as a letterpress printer in the town, and with a couple of friends cheekily invited myself to dinner.  To our amazement we were indeed invited, I scrubbed up as best I could (printers ink being very stubborn) and we presented ourselves at the vicarage for a meal of irish stew followed by a cheeseboard.

I remember Ramsey was wonderfully vain.  He kept asking his wife Joan if his hair was all right (a wonderful silky white mane, he looked like a biblical prophet).  She would produce a silver comb and all was kept tip-top.

At one stage we asked him what he thought of Enoch Powell as a theologian.  “Ah Enoch.  Enoch has read many books and some of them have been about God…”

St Albans is special in so many ways, and the longstanding interfaith group (which predates 9/11) is evidence of that.  The initiative came from the Rev Tony Hurle of St Paul’s Church, who wanted to create a regular dialogue between the local religious communities.

On Saturday we had speeches from Kevin Walton, the Canon Chancellor at the Abbey, who made the point that our city’s origin stemmed from Alban, then a non-Christian, reaching out to protect a persecuted Christian; a luminous talk from Dr Khalid of the Islamic Centre, St Pauls’ close neighbour in Hatfield Road; speeches from the United Synagogue in Oswald road and the Masorti congregation; the Bahai; and the Society of Friends, who are currently hosting the Masorti congregation at the Friends Meeting House in Upper Lattimore Road.  Also spotted were friends from Marlborough Road Methodist Church, as well as other Anglican churches in town.

My apologies if I have omitted anyone.  They are all Abrahamic faiths, and there is far more that unites than divides us.  I found this event an uplifting and moving experience.

There are so many different grounds why this proposal is wholly unsuitable for the site -

• “coalescence” of currently separate communities destroying any remaining sense of a rural setting for the south of our city and district
• massively increased lorry traffic on a highway infrastructure which is already close to breaking point
• much of the workforce operating the site having to be imported daily from miles away adding to unnecessary traffic congestion
• a whole mass of unanswered questions about the impact on commuter rail services which are vital to the economy of St Albans and the surrounding villages, and
• the terrible impact on the quality of life of those living near the site.

But I wanted to highlight in particular the loss of the long-distance view from the south of St Albans Abbey. There are good grounds for saying this was the very cradle of Christianity in Britain. It is the only British cathedral built on the site of a martyrdom – Britain’s first Christian martyr. I have always believed that St Alban would be an ideal patron saint for Britain.

St Albans Abbey may not be the greatest piece of ecclesiastical architecture in Britain – but miraculously given its proximity to London it still sails above a recognisably medieval town with a skyline punctuated by Abbey Tower, clock tower and St Peters Church. Tens of thousands of rail travellers see this view every day – and religious or not, their spirits must be uplifted by the sight.

Suddenly that view is to be expunged and and the view from the railway line will be of great slab-sided warehousing. St Albans Civic Society has commissioned a brilliant poster designed by Roger Harlow which makes the point more powerfully than any words can.

What happened in Roman Verulamium nearly two thousand years ago was an act of huge significance for the history of our nation. The great church standing on a hill has been a beacon for pilgrims and travellers for a thousand years. To expunge this view is no less than cultural vandalism showing total contempt for the history of our island.

It must be prevented.The full text of my letter to the Director of Planning follows:

Director of Planning
St Albans District Council
St Peter’s Street
St Albans
AL1 3JE

Dear Sir

Re: Proposed Rail Freight Terminal, Park Street

Planning Ref: 5/2009/0708

I am writing to express my whole-hearted objection to the proposed Helioslough development.

Quite simply the proposed freight terminal remains a wholly inappropriate use for the proposed location:

• It completely destroys the careful separation of St Albans, Park Street and London Colney
• The impact on the local road network will not be addressed by the proposed fairly minor remedial works.
• It does not address any employment need local to St Albans.
• There remain many unanswered questions about the rail access – not least the impact on current heavily used commuter services which are vital to the economies of the communities between Luton and outer London; and whether the Elstree Tunnel will ever be brought up to full W10 railway gauge to allow it to accommodate full size European container trains or if that will always be an “aspiration”. .
• There can only be damage to the quality of life of the large residential population living adjacent and near to the site.

The argument was made by the previous Inspector and endorsed by then Secretary of State that a so-called “strategic” railfreight terminal had an economic importance that outweighed most normal planning and Green Belt objections provided there was clear evidence that no alternative Green Belt or non Green Belt site existed. I have inspected at least one alternative site at Sundon north of Luton which has been identified by ProLogis and it has clear advantages over the Park Street site.

But I wish to highlight the implications of the potential catastrophic impact on the iconic distant view of St Albans from the south and in particular from the Midland Mainline as illustrated in the specially commissioned St Albans Civic Society poster. Nearly 2,000 years ago the first British Christian martyr was put to death on a hill outside Roman Verulamium. A shrine was built to St Alban and his body was laid to rest there. A settlement grew and became St Albans. The Abbey church grew and became the premier monastery and place of pilgrimage in England before becoming Hertfordshire and Bedfordshire’s cathedral church. Miraculously the cathedral still stands on its hill unobscured as a beacon for all faiths in a city which arguably has the highest church attendance of any place in Britain. And now it is to be hidden by a giant shed, an outcome as catastrophic to the genius loci of Britain as tower blocks cramming in on St Paul’s or the Tower of London..

This is a proposed development of almost unimaginable scale on a site where the Green Belt is already under significant stress. The increase in traffic will cause chaos to the whole south of St Albans district. The claimed employment, environmental and ecological benefits of the proposed scheme are largely a mirage.

As was stated in the previous public inquiry, the Helioslough scheme has a floor area much greater than Terminal 5 at Heathrow and a volume that could comfortably accommodate all of the residential properties within Park Street, Bricket Wood, Chiswell Green, London Colney and Colney Heath. With the damage to the greenfield context of one of the most significant religious sites in Britain, it is wholly inappropriate and should therefore be rejected by the District Council and any subsequent appeal fought with the utmost vigour.

Yours sincerely

Sandy Walkington

We were married to this organ – Vierne’s First Symphony played by the then Master of Music Colin Walsh.

How lucky we are to have the market, and my sense is that it has regained vitality over recent months – in contrast with the shops behind where an empty Woolworths adds to the gloom.

Our key objective was vegetables – so much cheaper and more appetising looking than shrink wrapped in a supermarket. We have our favourite stall – which is clearly everyone else’s too given the length of the queue waiting patiently to be served.

Pleased to see that Peter Trevelyan of the Civic Society shares our opinion!

We staggered away with the frozen coriander – but also apples, bananas, seville oranges for marmalade, onions, flat-leaved parsley, celeriac, sprouting tops, multi-coloured peppers etc etc No problem getting our five-a-day and all at prices far cheaper than in the big stores.

Then fresh sprats and squid from the fish stall and mouth-watering cheese from the Italian cheese stall where before Christmas we had bought simply the best olive oil I have ever tasted.

Bread from Simmonds and the thought that I would be proud to take any foreign visitor on a similar culinary odyssey.

It was my 12 year old daughter Dora who persuaded me that my birthday was no excuse for not joining her at the annual Sleep-Out in aid of local homeless charities. It is the third year I have done this and it was not an obvious choice for a birthday celebration. Indeed my son Tom asked before we set off if when I was 5 years old I had ever imagined I would grow up to sleeping in the open without a roof 50 years later…

The cause – Open Door St Albans – is an excellent one. I just wish it hadn’t started to rain at about 10 pm – in spite of best efforts, the sleeping bags got a bit wet and then the later dry but cold wind made it fairly bracing. My smile at the end of the night was slightly forced!

I picked our spot with our back to the railings and facing the magnificent floodlit cliff of the nave facade. My neighbour on the grass turned out to be Charles Burch, new curate at St John’s Southdown. We had last met in 1980 in the gloomy corridors of Madison Square Gardens in New York where we were both part of the UK observer delegation at that year’s Democratic National Convention.

We both heard Edward Kennedy’s epic platform speech conceding victory to Jimmy Carter – and also Jimmy Carter’s own acceptance speech where in talking of that year’s death of Hubert Humphrey he referred to “Hubert Horatio Hornblower”. I thought I was drunk when I heard him say that since the convention parties for foreign “VIPs” were truly legendary affairs – but Carter really say it, all part of his halo of accidents which helped elect sunny Ronald Reagan in his stead.

A bit of a weird coincidence to have the two of us join the many young people at the Sleep Out.

The Sleep-Out is held every year with a host of willing helpers to patrol the precincts, supply all-night soup and biscuits etc etc. When there is so much criticism of young people, it is a great advertisement for so much that is good in our society. The Open Door hostel in St Albans is a really good cause. It is the only “open access” hostel for homeless people in Hertfordshire – ie people can just turn up for a bed, bath, food and a chance to wash their clothes without being referred by an official agency. It fills a great need – just one night of being cold and wet tells me that.

But I suspect I will spend next year’s birthday celebrations in snugger surroundings!