In all our sanctuaries we sit at risk

Category: abuse of free speech

  • Mr. Johnson’s Competition

    Posted:

    The UK Tory Party Conference is taking place in Manchester, as I write this. In the little poem above, written this morning after a very rainy night, I am thinking of various misleading and dishonest pronouncements made by Prime Minister Johnson in and around the conference. Perhaps the one that struck me hardest, was his…

  • The Good of Language

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  • The Potent Appeal of the “Strong Model”

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      Why do certain behaviours, or opinions, or political policies, become popular at some point, where before they would have been rejected out of hand ? Why do certain approaches, or qualities of presentation, previously scorned, suddenly start to be given value ?  And do all such changes represent advance, or improvement ? No.  And…

  • In Search of Good Faith

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    I have been carrying a little string of thoughts in my head for several weeks. They make a point I haven’t seen being made elsewhere and which might be worth adding to the mix. Maybe it would be of interest to someone passing, even throw some further light, however dim and peripheral, on what’s happening…

  • UK ’21 – Resumé from the Cage

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  • So where have we got to, so far, in 2021 ?

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      So where have we got to, so far, in the year 2021 ?  Locked in, locked down, sundered from outer family – again. And everywhere, the virus and its effects, spreading yet further, pressing wider and deeper.  The masked face, still – and ever increasingly – the image of our time. In the US,…

  • A Severed Edge

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    In the rush and flood of falsity and ill-doing that enter and surround our everyday lives, among all the mis-steps and momentous errors born of that rush and that falsity, I keep returning to certain physical landmarks that at least give the appearance of standing firm and of meaning something worth standing for. One such…

  • Message to Keir Starmer

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    Dear Keir Starmer, I’m a Labour member and a strong supporter and admirer of your leadership. I am sending this email message – and will upload a copy on my blog – fully aware that there is no prospect that you will read it. But, maybe, one of your team will. I can see, of course,…