The DCTN strap-line is “(mostly) first-person poetry, prose and opinion” and I try and keep the blog more poetical than political. Of course, with the UK election looming, this is going to be more and more difficult; I suspect there’s more politics in poetry than there is poetry in politics.
So, recognising that politics are bound to enter into things sometime soon, I’ll get started with a few fairly random recent thoughts. First, a somewhat startling headline snipped from the BBC website:
After several days of glorious summer, the solid rain that woke me early this morning reminds me that “bad governments bring bad weather” and here in the UK it’s the day to head to the polling station.
On 22-25 May voters in the EU’s 28 member states will elect their representatives in Europe. Their choices will affect 500 million EU citizens.
The futures of 500 million people is a big responsibility; under our current system it is also a shared responsibility. I wasn’t really thinking of the bigger picture when I sent off my postal vote a few days ago; now I rather hope some of those voters in other countries are thinking more about me than I did about them.
News websites change rapidly, so one headline that particularly caught my attention – “Clegg attacks Tory knife crime plan” – is no longer to be found. I’d made a note of it, though, as that badly chosen verb “attack” bothered me.
For a bored subeditor, making up punny headlines can be fun, but I think there’s a point when serious news should be treated seriously. (True, my post title is slightly frivolous, but this is a personal blog not an official news provider.)
Continue reading “news at the cutting edge”
I’ve said before that this is not a political blog, but today I was saddened to hear of the death of Tony Benn, one of the great politicians of my youth. Ed Miliband has apparently paid homage, saying:
[Tony Benn] will be remembered as a champion of the powerless, a great parliamentarian and a conviction politician.
I’m not sure what a conviction politician is, but I suspect the world might be a better place if a few more politicians were convicted.
In 1990, I was given four of Benn’s Diaries, all autographed in red pen. 
I’ve just checked to see that the damp hasn’t got to them (it hasn’t), and find them suitably placed alongside Prince Peter Kropotkin, Engels and E.P. Thompson. (All of them little read books.)
If I believed in such things, I would probably be hoping that Mr Benn might find himself in such company tonight.
Despite all succeed-in-social-media advice, I don’t have a regular schedule for blog updates, but this hiatus of nearly a fortnight is not the norm.
While travelling last week, I found I was doing my own impersonation of the Seven Dwarfs: puffy, sniffy, whingey, dozy, grumpy, busy… well that’s only six, but I tagged coffee onto the list, and kept going.
I grew up thinking the seventh Disney dwarf was Dock – a very dwarf-like name; listing my symptoms in an email, though, I had a moment of clarity: I was missing Doc.
So I went to the doctor and discovered I was rather more poorly than just a “stinking cold”. Dosed up with three types of antibiotic, I am now beginning to get back on track.
This means I’ve been out of commission for most of the initial furore surrounding Thatcher’s death, but am still just in time for all the fun of the funeral.
Although there’s little to be added to all the keen online wit and repartee, I do want to raise a few points:
Continue reading “life, death and points arising”
don't confuse the narrator 