In all our sanctuaries we sit at risk

Category: abuse of free speech

  • Word Play

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    “What is the purpose of poetry ?” I ask myself. Sometimes I find this question simple to answer. And sometimes the answer itself  is simple. The purpose of poetry is to work.… continue reading

  • I See Everywhere the False

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    I thought this was true in 2014, when it was written. I did not know then that the truth can become truer.… continue reading

  • Might Labour be the Force to Renew UK Politics ?

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    Our democratic politics isn’t working and, in my view, its dysfunction is one of the major causes of our present national crisis. In so many ways, our political structures and democratic processes – not just here in the UK, but manifestly in other countries too – are under attack and also in question. We have…

  • The Widow

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      Here is another poem of loss and it’s called “The Widow” (the title links to it). I wrote it some years ago, in sorrow for the grief of the person concerned, but also in awe at how she voiced her bereavement, the words she reached for, and the way she flung them out, time…

  • A White Shirt Writ Large in the Rose Garden

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    Dear MP’s Office Manager, Thank you for your earlier response and yes, please, I would like to hear the Cabinet Office’s response to your news, that by the 26th May you had already received 1500 emails concerning Mr Cummings. I need to report that the responses I’ve heard so far have just left me brimming…

  • The Lying Toad is Back, the Tousled Look, the Winning Smirk, Our Leader…

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    The prose piece that follows begins with the mismatch in the UK, between the present Prime Minister’s relative popularity on the one hand, and his long established disregard for the Nolan Principles of ethical conduct on the other. The piece provides a reminder that our Prime Minister has previously been sacked twice for lying  and…

  • The Establishing of Ground

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    The reference here is to a book and an image I keep referring to. It is called “I and Thou” and is by Martin Buber. Buber compares two essential ways of reaching out beyond the Self to meet the world : one is I – It (my object) and the other I – Thou (my…

  • What does “Advisor” mean in Toadland ?

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    Semantics – the study of words and their meanings – is an important subject, after all. I used to hang back from it as being peripheral, academic, finickity, pedantic. But now, especially in this era when the Lie is so greatly in the ascendant, I see more clearly that being alert to how words are…