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PHILISTINES RULE, OK?
WHO NEEDS THE ARTS ANYWAY?Note too that a faithful study of the liberal arts humanizes character and permits it not to be cruel.OVID As Ovid states, ‘and permits it not to be cruel’. However, what...
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Customer care: a fantasy
COMMUNICATION BREAKDOWN:The fantasy façade of ‘Customer Care’.When the computer became commonplace, some of us were naïve enough to think this heralded the future - those expected halcyon days the...
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The flea and the elephant
The Flea on the ElephantMy son and his wife have just paid £25 to become members of the Labour Party. They, like me, are ardent Corbynistas, but although I have much respect for the man I feel both he...
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GOOD READS
There’s plenty of great fiction around these days yet I still adhere to the old statement that fact is always more fascinating than fiction, and to me that makes it more entertaining. Why? Because...
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Is The Flying Dutchman Real?
The Flying Dutchman:The Ultimate Ghost Ship At the height of Second World War, on 3 August 1942, HMS Jubilee was off the South African coast, making her way on a calm sea to the Royal Navy base at...
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Yankee Doodle Doldrums
Yankee Doodle DoldrumsWhen Ernest Hemingway wrote that “prose is architecture, not interior decoration, and the Baroque is over” I couldn’t have disagreed with the great man more. I’d already spent...
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The Ice Bell
St. RomanusKingston PeridotTHE ICE BELLPOEM PROJECT: BACKGROUND.I was born and raised in the port of Hull, where going into the fishing industry for a school leaver was the equivalent of having to go...
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De Profundis
DE PROFUNDIS: STEPHEN REA READS OSCAR WILDE'S LETTER FROM READING JAIL.Among the hundreds of great writers, poets and literary minds we all admire a few stand out because their work is so quotable in...
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To Hellamy and Back
TO HELLAMY AND BACKWhat the ‘Big Society’ did for a ‘Sink’ estate.Boarded up property on Bellamy RoadLiverpool, Leeds, Manchester, in fact most major UK cities still have their sink estates. They exist...
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Heritage Hypocrisy
HERITAGE: HYPOCRISY.Oh, how we love our stately homesTo stand in awe behind that velvet ropeAs from the well-flocked wallsPrivilege in oils looks smugly down.There’s the Duchess and the EarlBut of the...
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FOR SARAH 1966-2012
FOR MY DAUGHTER ON HER BIRTHDAYToday would have been a carnivalBut you know this; I see your lovely faceSmiling in your frame upon the wall.Today would be your birthday;The half century you stringently...
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Article 0
THE DEATH OF DECENCYHalf a century ago, as a young, newly married man with a baby daughter, like many of my generation I felt that my youthful energy could be instrumental in changing the world. There...
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THE END
THE ENDThe world does not owe me a living. I can’t cry in my beer and condemn those declining principles of my chosen profession and blame their dissolution for my own lack of fortune. The world...
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Hypernormalisation
HypernormalisationWe live in a strange, inexplicable world. Take this blog, for instance. Before the internet and the PC, those of us who sought to express something about our daily lives would have...
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WELCOME TO LIE-LIE LAND
WELCOME TO LIE-LIE LANDWriting something like this seems a waste of time. It is ‘preaching to the converted’. In the current dark and threatening atmosphere with its sinister, uncertain future, it...
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Walking the dog
Walking the DogThis was a short story entered for Amnesty International'sannual competition. It did very well in the top ten but of course, it didn't win.So what else is there to do but put it on line;...
View ArticleLeonard Cohen - Dance Me to the End Of Love
With Bowie and others leaving us, now the great Mr. Cohen, 2016 seems to be turning out to be the year decency, compassion, creative dialogue and hope have all been trashed. Best then to look back at...
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Post Brexit, Post Trump
If politics and economics were a sport,We would congratulate the winner and shake hands.But this is not sport. These are the whips of lifeWhich scar our backs.So let us draw a line under hatred.I know...
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TABULA RASA
TABULA RASAThe concept of “Tabula Rasa” -- the Latin term for “Blank Slate” -- proposed that a child's mind was like a blank sheet of paper, void of all reason and knowledge. An idea hugely popular at...
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