In all our sanctuaries we sit at risk

Tag: spin

  • Democracy & the Lie: do they go hand in hand ?

    Posted:

    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 renewal of the UK’s…

  • Report

    Posted:

    I wish to report a strange man of average height, indeterminate skin colour but a knowing look who sidled into town today wearing an immaculate top hat and shoddy trainers. He said he was searching for a convenient park popular with the townspeople where he could set himself up to sell his famous elixir.  …

  • Six Truth Works Three Tattoos

    Posted:

    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, recklessness…

  • “The People” is Sovereign. To defraud the sovereign is a capital offence.

    Posted:

    In the UK following its EU referendum, “the People’s Will” is a phrase now often being quoted with reverence as something unarguable, final, almost sacred, however uncomfortable. The phrase is being quoted most often and with greatest reverence by the public figures who helped to secure the Brexit vote by whatever means they could –…

  • Three Poems post-Brexit

    Posted:

      Last Stand   The hyphen between I and Thou is our last stand and foothold. There’s nowhere else to retreat to. No set answer no fixed place. Centuries back the desert fathers came here and left strange word behind among skull and thigh bone and the odd green shoot forced into life through ardent…

  • How can we Defend Free Speech from the Lie ?

    Posted:

    This piece follows the recent UK referendum on our membership of the EU. Both the quality of the debate and the “decision” that came out of it have left many millions of people reeling and horrified. But how was that decision arrived at ? Why do so many of us find it impossible to accept…

  • Post-Referendum First Thoughts

    Posted:

    At the time of writing, Britain is faced with what the experienced commentator Michael White has described as the worst political crisis of his lifetime. Not just our political parties, but much of our democratic process seem to be imploding. It seems that, having voted to break away from the EU, our nation itself feels…

  • Message to Andy

    Posted:

    After the May election, I joined the Labour Party. Since then I have been inundated by messages from an extraordinary number of Labour representatives, each passionately keen to get virtually personal with me. These include each of the present Party Leader candidates, as well as candidates for the Deputy Leader, all of whom, of course,…