They keep coming, still in Rhyme Royal. Once it was the parrot who begged liberty to speak. But now he’s become the town crier, in a cage, caught in a storm. Today’s stanza was brought to mind by a good piece by Matthew d’Ancona. https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2018/aug/05/networked-far-right-tommy-robinson It was featured in The Guardian, today.… continue reading
Tag free speech
The Crier Frets
Paradise Destroy
“Humankind cannot bear very much Reality” is a quote from the poem “Four Quartets” by TS Eliot. If humanity is ever to be buried in a graveyard, once our work is done, this quote will be writ large on our gravestone.… continue reading
Going Nowhere to Mean Nothing
After the 2016 EU referendum,Theresa May kept intoning “The People have Spoken” with lugubrious reverence, as if trying to portray herself as some sort of priestess delivering holy writ. In fact, from first to last, from that unsound and unseemly referendum rumble, full of highly dodgy rude-boy doings, to our present horrendous and dishonourable impasse, what Maybot has “delivered” has… continue reading
The Parrot Ails
The United Kingdom – so called – continues to stagger towards Brexit. The Government – so called – keeps just “winning” so-called “victories.” Under the so-called “leadership” of Ms May, our incompetent progress towards this terrible mistake requires us to shed our honour, our pride, our connectedness, our contact with reality, our common sense, all our best interests and those… continue reading
… Parrot Speaks of the Brexit Agon
“Taisez- vous, Parrot, tenez vous coy !” cries Galathea. “You said earlier you’d taisez -vous, but still you go on ! Have you forgotten all your Tudor French ?”
But then we read : “Haec res acu tangitur, Parrot, par ma foy.”
It’s Galathea again, or someone, speaking to Skelton in Tudor French and Latin. She means : “That hit… continue reading
Parrot Speaks of Youth and Hope
Skelton’s parrot is a bird of paradise. But he mustn’t go on too long. If he has truth to tell in our storm, and wants to be heard, he has to be strategic. His cage is also his sanctuary.
… continue reading
Parrot Speaks of Law and Dust
The caged parrot keeps talking and seems to have quite a lot to say. His original author John Skelton was alive during the Reformation, another time in which England broke away from Europe in various ways. For the Reformation was not just a matter of religious upheavals and a royal divorce. There was also a power grab and a land… continue reading
Parrot speaks of The People’s Will
Does May really mean what she is doing here ? There is a dog whistle sounding whenever she intones this dreadful phrase “I am delivering the “People’s Will.” In the latest examples of it, she is setting herself up as the “People’s” friend and ally – against and as opposed to their own parliament and democratic system. It is a… continue reading
Parrot speaks of a Pit Bull
Paul Dacre, longtime editor of the Daily Mail, a frantic and irresponsible source of Brexit propaganda, who used his right to free speech and his platform for delivering it, much less for the truth and the public good than for a chance just to bully and abuse and sell a demagogic line, will be stepping down in November. The Mail’s… continue reading