I recently saw Benjamin Britten’s tragic opera Billy Budd. A friend bought me a ticket to go to Glyndebourne, which was a crude shock. I would have to dress up, bringing back sinister memories of moving from state to private school aged 10, where the uniform was part of the authoritarian message. In the sweetness
There is great inequality of power among the states of the world. This has led to Might-is-Right thinking for some and lies behind the current wars of aggression. With drumbeats of war with Russia being broadcast regularly in our media and the move to re-arming Europe, the world faces yet again another potential catastrophe of
Engineering a Safer World Read More »
We were recently asked whether Donald Trump is a clown who has gone power crazy or whether he has a strategy? My response to that is that he has proved himself a Killer Clown, and I do not acknowledge the boundaries of the question! Notwithstanding the temporary lull in hostilities in the Gulf of Hormuz, this argument
There is nothing more beastly than people who shudder with distaste or squeamishness at contact with animals. This ironically-titled book by Keggie Carew, offering “A New History of the Animals and Us” is a cry from the heart of a nature lover. The author runs a small nature reserve in Wiltshire. She has previously won
Beastly is Beautiful Read More »
We are in the middle of a work in progress: the shape of artificial intelligence is evolving quickly. It is, therefore, difficult to predict what will happen next. Should we be more worried about the risks? The changes are happening faster than we are able to understand and adapt to them. Over the course of
AI: Should We Be Worried? Read More »
About ten years ago, I stopped watching TV. I had a hi-tech, easy-to-programme TV recorder which could record 100s of hours of programmes, effectively creating my own TV channel. I never managed to see much of it. It made me realise that, like so many others, my appetite for content was too great – and
How Should We Fund the BBC? Read More »
This powerful and thought-provoking book was published during the relaxation between the first and second Covid 19 lockdowns in England in 2020. Heightened emotions arising from decades of information overload, increasingly freighted with disinformation and misinformation, deepened worldwide fears and divisions. Wise words were in short supply. Unusually for a polemic, its analysis and remedies
Surviving the Flak in a Mad, Bad World Read More »
Pressure on the BBC continues from Donald Trump and his allies in the large right-wing sector of our own media. But as the Open Britain campaign implies, this is an attack on the heart of British political culture. (See address of article:) https://mail.google.com/mail/u/0/?tab=rm&ogbl#search/bbc+trump/FMfcgzQcqtkLKVPQTvwtcZPZTTdmFZMR If you had to define “British values”, the BBC would come near
Defending the BBC through Dangerous Times Read More »
In this article, I cover the past, present and future of the United Nations (UN), including its achievements and failures since it was founded eighty years ago. I take a critical look at the challenges faced by the UN and the case of its most exceptional member state, the US. Finally, I talk about reforms
United Nations in the Next World Order Read More »
The subject of raising taxes on the super-rich, having long being promoted by organisations such as Tax Justice UK and Patriotic Millionaires, has risen sharply in the public discourse in recent weeks. However the discussion has focussed (naturally, in the country’s present situation) on raising funds – ideally by a method not squeezing further the
Inequality Makes Us All Poorer Read More »
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