We are all, it is said, the heroes of our own lives. The world is merely the stage which allows us to strut our stuff. Other people serve as extras to reflect glory on the main character; events, the fuel with which we cement our heroic status. But heroes are competent. Tom Cruise did not […]
We Could Be Heroes Read More »
For something which knows so much about me, Facebook seems to know very little about me. It knows where I went to university, but deluges me with posts from the alumni associations of different institutions, some of which I would not have deigned to go to, some of which did not deign to allow me
It is not so much that karma is what we all know her to be, but that she insists on giving such frequent demonstrations of the fact. Over the weekend I found myself pondering the scene in The Queen in which Prince Charles, concerned about regal inertia in the face of rising popular discontent over
The Diary of a Wimpy Prince Read More »
It had been many years since I was last on a commuter train. This is not, I confess, a particular source of sadness. From an early age, it was noted that my concept of personal space was not dissimilar to the Roman Empire’s view of physical space – what’s mine is mine and what’s yours
Life is, without getting over philosophical, nothing more than a stream of experiences. We are constantly bombarded by sensation and information, even if, most of the time, we are unaware of it. You were, for example, probably not aware of the feeling of your sock on your foot until you read these words. In a
The Perils of a Perfect Enemy Read More »
In 1260, John de Balliol, Northern warlord and father of a future King of Scotland, had a problem. His tiff with the Bishop of Durham had turned toxic and the King had taken the cleric’s side. Something had to be done. Doubtless against his will, he submitted to the bishop’s authority and performed a penance,
Beyond Redemption? Read More »
J. K. Rowling’s work, I confess, leaves me somewhat cold. Harry Potter is just an Enid Blyton boarding school story with sprinklings of magic, cod Latin and dubious politics (the Ministry of Magic imprisons and tortures its political opponents and they’re the good guys. Really?). One thing she got brilliantly right, I think though, was
I recently spent some happy hours with Noel Edmonds. That he was in New Zealand and I was in the London ‘burbs was perhaps for the best because, beloved childhood figure though he was, his beliefs are most politely described as unconventional batshit. I find crystal beds and healing energy every bit as interesting as
Chariots of Fire was on the “drop everything and watch” list my ex-wife and I compiled. A cry would go up when one of us spotted it on the telly, and we would settle down for a pleasant couple of hours cocooned in that cosy hymn to clean-limbed British manhood. Shot partly in a place
Terry Thomas’ England Read More »
The word “radical” derives ultimately from the Latin radix meaning “root” (every so often my classical education demands an airing – yes, radix is “root’s” root). It retains an air of this in our current usage. A radical reform is a root and branch reform, one which rips up that which has gone before and
The Curious Conservatism of the Radical Right Read More »
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