Let’s recall the film “High Noon,” that great Western. The outlaw and his hoodlum cronies are riding into town. They want revenge on the sheriff, the keeper of the law. The sheriff scours the town looking for support, a posse of townspeople who will help him defend their community from the outlaws. The townspeople know… Continue reading High Noon this Easter
Category free speech
The Angel Overhead
In his grief, he asked the angel hanging overhead,
his faceless confessor :
Why, Lord, do sinners’ ways so grossly prosper ?
How can you allow the Lie so fatly to preside ?
And the angel answered :
I invited you to my feast,
my laden tables… Continue reading The Angel Overhead
A Drawing of Conclusions
It is surely still natural to respect a conclusion that is reached through cogent argument. Each stage of the argument leads to the next stage, like a series of links in a chain. The conclusion is given its authority, its right to be heard and accepted, by the strength of the links that have led… Continue reading A Drawing of Conclusions
Naming the Beast of the Year
This beast has our country’s contours
written all over it.
It has leapt from out of the ruins
of the city, those hollow squares,
and from the great labrynth below ground
where the thread got tangled,
and from the wi-fi and the wires
through which we… Continue reading Naming the Beast of the Year
Autumn UK 2016
Today our skies evicted the swallow
and the swift was banished weeks ago
and in Dorset the house martin
whose tiny mud globes once crammed the eaves
was simply absent all year.
And last week Putin, unrestrained,
bombed hospitals in Aleppo
and Trump continued… Continue reading Autumn UK 2016
Sayings
Reaching for words
is like searching the earth
for stones
and then shaping them
one after another
into a path.
Your words took my breath away.
They killed me with their song.
They made my womb turn over.
Sing to me again.
The words… Continue reading Sayings
Can Liberal Democracy Survive our Tumult ?
Can liberal democracy survive our tumultuous, bewildering, frightening, dangerous times ? Can it surmount them ? Can it direct the flailing social forces at work towards positive solutions, a viable human future ?
As things stand, it seems not to be coping at all. It is surely in great danger of allowing and even… Continue reading Can Liberal Democracy Survive our Tumult ?
Post “Brexit” Blues and Bubbling Ferments
Here I have collated various addresses I have come across or been sent during the past few weeks. They link to various initiatives and/or reflections which I find interesting and helpful, following the referendum decision and the course – “Brexit means Brexit” – which appears to have been set for our unknown destination on the… Continue reading Post "Brexit" Blues and Bubbling Ferments
Democracy & the Lie: do they go hand in hand ?
During July, two articles by Andreas Whittam Smith appeared in The Independent newspaper on successive days. Here are the links to them: http://www.independent.co.uk/voices/broken-democracy-spin-doctors-destroyed-uk-politics-theresa-may-repair-it-a7135146.html ; http://www.independent.co.uk/voices/fix-broken-democracy-smash-political-class-two-simple-things-a7137131.html
Whittam Smith co-founded The Independent and his two pieces are worth reading. They explore the Brexit campaign’s “victory” and contain proposals for starting a process of… Continue reading Democracy & the Lie: do they go hand in hand ?
Six Truth Works Three Tattoos
Here in the UK, recent elections and this Summer’s cataclysmic EU referendum have been opportunities for liars, demagogues and PR specialists to practice their skills on the population, in order to sway it to their will. The phenomenon is not unique to the UK, nor of course is it unprecedented.
But the pervasive dishonesty… Continue reading Six Truth Works Three Tattoos