Category: Uncategorized

Debate. I don’t mean the Soundbite, or the Sneer, nor Banter, but Debate, the stuff that used to involve swords physical and then swords metaphorical. Where is it? It used to be everywhere, in the pub, in the corridor, around the meal table, even, yes, even, in Parliament. Socrates offered he had no knowledge; that…

Paris is grand and breathtaking; London is ‘rude and low’, which is easy for us imported Northerners to say safe in the hills of Yorkshire. Actually it was John Dryden who said so, so there. I like the suggestion in Austen Saunders’ Spectator Book Blog that London’s messy layout and ramshackle streets is a result of…

Norman Mailer did say, but cannot find where he said it, that technology is erotic; which is an uncomfortable word for us repressed English-males. It’s like the word porn; another uncomfortable word. But of course there is train-porn, watch-porn (I recall a two years of study accompanied by a group of wonderful fellow students who…

This word ‘pledge’ is intriguing. Has its capital sunk like toxic debt? Is too much pledging like too much chocolate; you get sick of it and ignore it after awhile? Americans pledge allegiance to flags; we breathe oaths to truth; promises to love; resolve New Years; re-member ourselves with commitments; determine futures; shake hands; guard…

If you think we’re wobbling in the face of debt woes, absorb this recent encounter with a downturn: “In early 1996, Bill Clinton warned that because the debt ceiling had not been raised, Social Security cheques might be late. This scared Congress into passing a small increase in the debt ceiling solely to meet Social…

Still disturbed by the Kings Speech; not the speech itself but the film in general! Did like Rowan Williams’ suggestion in Lost Icons that the death of Diana broke the mystery and magic of monarchy. Long after the death of deference in general society, the sort of deference that took a generation to Flanders, we’re…

During recent Sussex train trip I cast an envious but contemptuous eye over a smart young couple who were reading from an e-book reader. Usual ungracious thought of ‘that is not ‘proper’ reading’ issued. No self respecting lover of literature would disgrace the author etc and so forth yadda yadda. But a Tennysonian ‘still small…