Ricardo�s idea about opposing directional tendencies looks promising. One could think about what a single directional tendency is in a piece � a release of harmonic pressure as in Sweet Georgia Brown? a developmental maxim like Bernstein�s ready steady go? When the vector basis has been clarified then it would be possible to think about how the �opposition� comes about.

I heard a programme about dog-collars yesterday on R4 � apparently the earliest ever cave painting representations of dogs show them wearing a collar.

Lots of politics today � there is Academy Board meeting tomorrow. There are two intersecting developments � one of which comes from the Learning and Skills Council Workforce Development Strategy which Stefan has neatly picked up. We got a view of how the national LSC are presenting our involvement to their stakeholders � which confirms what we judged to be our source of uniqueness within their framework. The other was a research opportunity from an equally well conceived initiative in political terms which starts locally � a kind of bottom up definition of need. Again Stefan has been asked to pitch and I fed him some ideas about how we might maximise our benefit while getting the money and not giving too much away. Keith suggests that I do the work. This could be good fun.

I did some work on the published strategies of other LSCs � other than those from which the local consolidation of requirenent is emerging � working from our Summit participants and looking in the documents for those regions which had the greatest number of participants � to see whether the skills needs expressed at the Summit came through in the local strategy work. Answer no.

I drove down to Hampton-in-Arden to a charming bakery to get my lunch. If you know cockney rhyming slang you will know that Hampton is short for Hampton Wick. So Hampton-in-Arden is well up to standard in terms of Freudian condensation.

Did SBN just play an early Jeff Buckley � fast 3:8 falsetto moments and ascending passion underpinned by the rhythm section. That�s the trouble with the these cool stations � they don�t always say what they are doing. Well I hope they do it again.

The new piece looked like it was going to turn into a standard � standards are one of the two new concepts just entering development for Music for the Highveld. The standard is going to be Autumn Leaves in this case.

I am about to drive down to London because I need to be a Millbank for 10.00am.