Category: The Lie
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The Caged Parrot Watches the Demons Dance
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This piece returns to a preoccupation of my own, concerning language. What is the point of writing, the point of taking a position and then articulating it ? And of course that leads to the question, why keep writing these stanzas, these mere words amid all the bizarre and frantic and disastrous political action going…
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The Parrot Glimpses Mr Toad
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It continues to look certain that our new Prime Minister will be a toad. In saying that, I am thinking partly of Mr Toad of “Wind in the Willows.” I am also mindful that the UK ambassador in Washington, Mr Kim Darroch, has just resigned, due to being betrayed by some colleague, and to the…
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The Parrot Returns to Talk of False Gods
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When I wrote this, Boris Johnson was entertaining the nation with the question of when a certain photograph was taken. It claimed to show that the nation’s prospective Prime Minister had now made up with his girl-friend after their row. It was therefore safe to vote for him. He was accused of lying (again). The…
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Jez in a Cage
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Jez remains the issue. We have just passed through the Summer Solstice and the Tories are still immersed in their leadership contest to decide the UK’s next disastrous Prime Minister. Last week was all about the Tories, fighting over their lies and fantasies and then that fight in a London flat, and so on. But…
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Jez Holds the Bridge
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For days now, the Tories have been capturing the UK headlines with their exercise to find a new leader, who will also be the nation’s Prime Minister at this fraught and crucial time in our history. Today, mid-summer, with just Hunt and Johnson left in the competition, and with Johnson way ahead, we are moving…
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Speaking of the Worst
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The stanza above makes extensive reference to that extraordinary and justifiably famous poem by W.B. Yeats called “The Second Coming”. Yeats’ poem applies so closely to our own present time, of course. But might that be true of every present time ? Shakespeare too was gripped by the fear of breakdown in the order of…
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The Parrot Falls off his Perch
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This stanza refers to the Tory leadership contest following Theresa May’s resignation as UK Prime Minister. At present, Boris Johnson is far ahead of his rivals. The stanza’s warning, that in his career he has been sacked twice for lying, is a matter of public record. So is much else that is disreputable. In a…
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The Parrot on Maybot and the Minotaur
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This stanza is obviously about Trump’s State Visit to the UK, already started. It is astonishing the space we in this country continue to give to blatant felony and the lie and to the creatures thereof. The more space we give them, of course, the more they grow, like Tiddalick the frog. Is this visit…