9th July 2007 For anyone foolish enough to believe that the substitution of Brown for Blair would make any difference to the ideological tenor of the Government today's (8.07.07) Times front-page supplies an instant corrective. The latest subject to be introduced into classrooms is 'lessons in money'. Ed Balls, the Schools Minister' said 'Money plays …
Category: old entry
Election Lack-of-Fever 2005 (OP)
This one is especially interesting given I will be facing the same choices in a few months time. April 14th 2005 It is very hard to avoid falling into the pit of world-weary cynicism and apathy when confronted with the 2005 election. The mood for many on the left is perhaps best caught by the …
Lock ’em Up (OP)
19th November 2007 Way back in August - yes I know its a long time ago - an extraordinary column appeared in The Times by one Theodore Dalrymple. Britain - which already imprisons more of its population than anywhere else in Europe (except Portugal for some reason) needs to 'double the number of prisons at …
Class Divisions (OP)
18th December 2007 Sometimes articles which are just so damned good they demand reproducing on any blog going, get posted on one of the lists. This, like most of the best, was posted to WWTTA. >>CEOs vs. Slaves By Barbara Ehrenreich, AlterNet. Posted May 31, 2007. Recent findings shed new light on the increasingly unequal …
Pilgrimage Books 1-3 (OP)
3rd August 2007 Unusually this is a fairly straight reproduction of a list post - in this case to WWTTA on the subject of Dorothy Richardson's Pilgrimage Books 1-3 (Volume 1). I have put it here in addition partly because I have found the book so fascinating and partly because I have tried in this …
Friday Night Lights (OP)
8th March 2007 Friday Night Lights is an American TV series which started airing in the US in October 2006. It has been showing in the UK on ITV4 for the past three weeks. I wanted to write about it now because my feeling is that the extraordinary originality of the first couple of episodes will …
John Clare : ‘strange death of life’ (OP)
7th September 2005 At the ECW list we are reading Bate's biography of John Clare. I was not too sure about the earlier parts of the book, both becuase it seemed to me that Bate was failing to provide an adequate context for the political and literary world which formed the backgorund to Clare's emergence …
Cranford and Other Events
18th December 2007 There have now been two superb television series this year - Rome Part 2 (and I have written extensively of Rome) and now Cranford. It is hard to imagine two more superficially different series -Rome is blood and thunder, exploitation, over-the-top drama; Cranford quiet, understated. David (as in the painter) against Vermeer …
Funeral Music (OP)
11th March 2005 Widely reported in the British press has been a 'survey' of people's choice of song to be played at their funeral. As with many 'surveys' of this kind the actual basis is extremely thin - it is a result of a poll by digital TV channel Music Choice (of which I have …
Nanci 2007 (OP)
17th July 2007 We went to see Nanci Griffith on Sunday (15th). A wonderful night as usual - I am often close to tears when listening to and watching Nanci live. She played at the Alexandra Theatre rather than Symphony Hall - so we swapped the airiness and light and modernity and perfect sound quality …
Moving Toyshop 