The Amazon on fire. Trump in office. UK heading towards Brexit catastrophe. Modi marching into Kashmir. Glaciers melting. Plastic pollution. Hong-Kong protests…. And in Britain, Parliament, the Mother of Parliaments itself, is being prorogued. In essence, being arbitrarily shut down for a significant number of days, just as the deadline for Brexit looms ever nearer. […]
politics
Love, Shakespeare and War
As Britain’s prime minister convenes a ‘War Cabinet’ and moves British submarines within missile range of Syria, I would like to take a moment. To talk about love, Shakespeare and Emma Rice, whose role as Artistic Director of the Globe will end this month. I was riveted by Emma Rice’s introduction to the Globe Theatre’s […]
Democracy and Dictator Trump
(photo: Business Insider) On the eve of a momentous presidential election in the United States, ladies and gentlemen, let’s hear from – Immanuel Kant. “Only two things inspire genuine awe: the starry sky above and the moral law within.” Kant went on to define a good will, as part of this moral law […]
Trump, Trust and Governance
gettyimages-5086450001.jpg “Although it tends to get lost in the showbusiness of electioneering, politics is ultimately about governance.” (Professor Philip Bobbit writing about the […]
Modi, Brady and Omar Khayyam
The Moving Finger writes; and, having writ, Moves on: nor all thy Piety nor Wit Shall lure it back to cancel half a Line, Nor all thy Tears wash out a Word of it. (From The Rubáiyát of Omar Khayyam, 1859. Translated by Edward Fitzgerald.) I had decided not to write an Old Year/New […]
Dialogue Not Drones
The Tunisian National Dialogue Quartet Beating off hotly tipped favourites such as Pope Francis and Angela Merkel, the 2015 Nobel Peace Prize was won by the Tunisian National Dialogue Quartet. ‘The Tunisian what…?’ asked everyone in surprise. Is it a string quartet? A debating society? Well, actually, it’s a rather unusual coming together of four […]
The Political Hunger Games
fasting, force-feeding and suicide bombers Day 1… day 2… day 27… day 90… day 118… day 174… day 200… day 253…. proceeding one after another, impossible numbers delivering both relief and pain, telling their tale of suffering, endurance and sacrifice. Cataloguing the body’s drawn out deterioration, the protracted anguish of its shrinking and shrivelling; […]
Corbyn, Content and Consensus
What a piece of work is man! How noble in reason, How infinite in faculty? In form and moving how express and admirable! In action how like an Angel! In apprehension how like a God! The beauty of the world! The paragon of animals. And yet, to me, what is this quintessence of dust? Man […]