Category Community
This poem is another written recently and pretty fast, though some aspects of it have been fermenting for quite a while, I suspect.
But the immediate catalyst was Prime Minister’s Question Time last Wednesday (November 30th). Starmer talked about Winchester College (public school) and the exemption from VAT enjoyed by these long-established playing fields (and citadels) of wealth and privilege.… continue reading
September 6th was, of course, the date on which Mr Johnson stood down as prime minister of the UK. On the other hand, the poem (in its two parts) might be described as a celebration of adolescence, a developmental stage in which the growing human being discovers and explores self, its wonders, its powers and its boundaries.
But human society… continue reading
Unworthiness Amok at Number Ten
After a week-end of celebration in praise of an honourable Queen, we in the UK are now entering a week which might prove quite troublesome for a dishonourable Prime Minister. He, his allies and their works remind me of a sentence on the back of a novel called “The Possessed” by Fyodor Dostoevsky : “The author is everywhere concerned with… continue reading
Footnote : The words at the head of this poem, from Shakespeare’s play Henry VI, are spoken by the man about to become Richard III. In the play, he has just finished murdering the rightful king, Henry VI.
… continue reading
… Ethics in UK Politics
Here below is the copy of a letter I’ve sent this week to Lord Evans of Weardale, Chair of the UK’s independent committee on standards in public life. By coincidence, just before Mr Johnson’s extraordinary contortions in the House of Commons two days ago, Lord Evans’ committee produced a report recommending certain improvements in the way ethical standards are maintained… continue reading
