Ian Martin. Manchester's sinking gasbags, London's floating island aerodrome

摘要

To Manchester, and the Labour Party conference. For a few days MPs can forget they're barristers or journalists or PR consultants or whatever and walk around like tribunes of the people, without ties on. My friend Azzy Bifter, the idiot secretary of state for entertainment, is nervous when I meet him and his Mam for lunch. He has to give a keynote address on the challenges of High Definition Britain and keeps forgetting his lines. Mrs Bifter coaches him throughout the meal, ignoring me and wiping food off his face from time to time. I'm not sure I like the sound of Azzy's 'HD Britain. The home entertainment revolution ('broadband, plasma TV screens, er I said broadband didn't I?') has given us a new depth and quality of content, apparently. So Azzy and his army of civil servants now plan to 'roll out' high definition culture for everything, including architecture.