In all our sanctuaries we sit at risk

Tag: democracy.

  • Rule by Rude Boy ?

    Posted:

    What has been the effect upon UK citizens of the behaviour we have witnessed during the past few days, as negotiations over the planned televised debates between our political leaders appear to have reached their climax ? For me, the way Cameron/his Party/his hooligan Press have conducted themselves has been utterly astonishing. Obviously the Tory…

  • Truth or Lie – which to vote for in May ?

    Posted:

    For me, one of the best news items in recent days has been Peter Oborne’s resignation from The Telegraph on a point of principle. I hadn’t even heard his name before, but suddenly here he is, more prominent and sharply focused than almost anything else in the parade of parrot heads and slogans we are…

  • Let the bird of paradise speak loud from his cage

    Posted:

    I want to recite to camera a long poem, originally by John Skelton. And I want to do so from the top of the Tyndale Monument, a tall tower on a hill near Bristol.  William Tyndale and Skelton both lived in the reign of Henry VIIIth but they have more than that in common. The…

  • The Scottish Referendum : odd thoughts

    Posted:

    The campaign has not just energised Scots and many more – it will surely have embittered many, too. How will Scotland fare once the decision is made and the “sides” stand back from the barricades, the losers looking at the winners in the eye ? Will they help each other put the barricades away ?…

  • Our present democracies will not rescue us from ourselves.

    Posted:

    For the young, it will already seem a long time ago that the Soviet Communist bloc effectively closed down, its remarkable leader Mikhail Gorbachev introducing “Perestroika,” its various constituent states, including Russia itself, “giving way” to democracy in remarkably quick succession. A major symbol of that dramatic and joyful time was the destruction of the…

  • Lout Language as an Abuse of Power

    Posted:

    This piece was mostly written in the second half of October 2013. The UK Privy Council (quaint relic of a powerful medieval institution, suddenly back on stage) had just turned down a recommendation for a new form of self-regulation put to them by various representatives of the Press, the vast majority of these of a…

  • In fervent hope of the re-election of Barak Obama

    Posted:

    I wrote the poem below in 2008, in wonder, delight and trepidation at the election of Barack Obama. Was America ready for this wonderful development ? The answer would appear to be, barely. Four years later, he is still there, but has had to fight for every inch of movement into the light, restrained and…