Category: abuse of free speech
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Mr Toad Goes Bombing
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This was written on Wedesday August 28th, 2019. Worth noting that date. During this morning, we’ve learned that Mr Johnson intends to stop parliament meeting through most of September. It is on public record that Mr Johnson has been sacked twice for lying. No rational employer would consider even short-listing him for a job. Yet…
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Dust
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Lost in the chaos of present events, we – or something in us – look to leadership for orientation, guidance and comfort. And the same something perhaps assumes that, the worse the crisis, the better that leadership must be and rescue is on the way. And assumes as well that, in this chaos, our own…
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The Parrot Notes a Toad on the Hop
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This stanza was written last night after I read that Mr Toad was about to head off to meet Mrs Merkel and Mr Macron, etc. And Mr Toad is going to tell them that the Irish back stop was “undemocratic” etc. But today it turns out that there has also been an exchange of letters…
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The Parrot Notes Mr Toad Grown Larger
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Today, UK Law seems to have decided that it is not a penal offence for an accountable holder of public office, such as a member of parliament, to lie to or otherwise seek to mislead, a sovereign people. This despite the fact that all members of parliament have sworn an oath to tell the truth,…
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The Parrot on Sanctuary
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This piece looks back to when John Skelton wrote his poem “Speak, Parrot” in the sixteenth century. All these rhyme royal stanzas about Brexit I’m writing, refer to that poem, in one way or another. It is supposed that Skelton wrote it in the precincts of Westminster, where the medieval laws of sanctuary were still…
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The Parrot Keeps Asking
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On the day this piece was written the nation was waiting to find out which of the two rival (Tory) candidates was about to take control of our nation, Hunt or Johnson. Both were hollow men, diddy men. Johnson was widely expected to get it, so no great surprise was expressed when he did. In…
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Parrot on the Labour Die-Hards
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Self-evidently, these are times of national crisis from which only the best of governments can rescue us. We do not have the best of governments and one still worse is coming. So it matters that Tom Watson cuts a rather lone figure in the Labour Party just now. What he stands for, I believe, is…