Category: Language
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He Overhears some Afterthoughts
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In the UK, the local elections have just taken place, and the Tories did very badly and Labour just did badly. But that’s serious for Labour and for the rest of us. Labour should surely be a coming force by now, after month upon month of this worst of governments. Maybot and the Boy Jez…
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The Parrot Shakes the Bars
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Instead of “shakes the bars” the author might just as well have written “wracks his brains” – a more conventional image, though equally physical a description. But since the parrot lives in a cage, it seemed fitting that he should do some violence to that, instead of to himself.… continue reading
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The Parrot Advises on Leadership
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This stanza offers some general thoughts on leadership and the part it plays – or fails to play. But it is also based on the specific image of the UK House of Commons, in which the Party of Government and the Party of Opposition face one another across the aisle. Neither of the present leaders…
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The Parrot Takes New Bearings
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I’m thinking here of our sleek new Foreign Secretary’s recent comment, saying – as reported in the Guardian – that “relations with the EU will be ‘poisoned for many years to come’ if Brussels fails to budge in the Brexit talks.” In other words, says Mr Hunt, he of the bell which keeps breaking in…
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He Speaks of the Rapidity of Change
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Very soon after the Labour Group cast off, so did a slightly smaller Tory group and the two groups combined to form what may become a new political party. Tories left behind were more sorrowful than critical, at least in front of the microphones. By contrast, notable Labour figures left behind carried on snarling, shrieking…
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A Brexiter Takes Stock of the Dark Star
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I know that, in writing this, I was remembering a scene from an early “Star Wars” film. An ominous planet approaches. And I remember that image occurring to me, when I came across a book by Iain McGilchrist called “The Master and His Emissary – The Divided Brain and the Making of the Western World.”…
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Jez, the Phantom Striker
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Jeremy Corbyn is apparently an Arsenal supporter. Yesterday’s “Independent” editorial came up with the image of the open goal and Corbyn’s failure to shoot. Thanks for that. The piece ended by taking the image a stage further : if the Arsenal manager had a striker who repeatedly failed to shoot in times of need as…