The Politics of Dancing

1. Few things better demonstrate a culture gone mad than the so called ‘war on drugs.’ One might as well declare a war on hedonism. When Marx famously described religion as the opium of the people he was not only providing a critique of religion. Indeed in the absence of religion opium, gin, vodka or cannabis become the opium of the people. Given that for all of recorded history life for the great mass of people has been nasty, brutish and short it is hardly surprising that the desire to use substances to mood alter has become embedded into almost every culture. Given that advanced capitalism no longer promises an ever greater expansion of leisure time and improved quality of life, substituting instead of this promised Eden a 'work till you drop' ethos, it is hardly a surprise that the response should be recourse to the wine bottle or jar of happy pills. That addiction and dependency are the logical manifestation of this response is a predictable as the incoming tide. A

Well here’s a statement I never thought I would commit to paper, I agree with Norman Tebbit. In a radio interview he ridiculed the use of the word ‘affordable,’ stating correctly, that this is merely a feel good phrase that is, in practice, meaningless. I came across this term in a recent exhibition respecting proposals to improve Notting Hill Gate, the council stating they would be building more affordable homes in the area. All homes are affordable, should Buckingham Palace be placed on the market it would be affordable, for those who could afford it. What is required in London is low cost housing; particularly low rent housing, ‘affordable’ to those on the minimum wage. I placed a extremely large question mark next to the picture of the proposed affordable homes followed by ‘affordable’ for whom?                 *                       *                       * Yet another radio interview the other day in which a politician was constantly interrupted and harangued

Obscured by all the recent acclaim for Vladimir Putin, - leader of his people, statesman, peacemaker, - Putin has, yet again, been putting the squeeze on his neighbours. He has been making his immediate neighbours, in particular Armenia and Ukraine , offers that are difficult to refuse. The catalyst of this activity has been the possibility that either country might sign bilateral trade and economic co-operation agreements with the EU. Since the collapse of the USSR , with the brief exception of the early Yeltsin years, Russia has sought to bully and intimidate all the former soviet states that now constitute Russia ’s immediate neighbours. Russia ’s track record against tiny Estonia alone makes for particularly grizzly reading. However the real affront to Russian hegemony is the existence of an independent Ukraine . Russia ’s continued blatant interference in the internal affairs of Ukraine is so naked precisely because, for a considerable number of Russians in general

Autumn for me is the season for poetry, both writing and reading; ‘Let us go then, you and I,   When the evening is spread out against the sky      Like a patient etherized upon a table;    Let us go, through certain half-deserted streets,     The muttering retreats Of restless nights in one-night cheap hotels   And sawdust restaurants with oyster-shells:   Streets that follow like a tedious argument     Of insidious intent       To lead you to an overwhelming question….            Oh, do not ask, “What is it?” Let us go and make our visit.        ‘ From ‘The Love Song of J Alfred Prufrock’ T S Eliot I first read those lines above in the autumn. I was 18 years old and was immediately enamoured of Eliot’s poetry, to the extent that someone appraising some of my early efforts said, “It’s a shame you ever read Eliot, for otherwise you have the makings of a reasonable poet.” What he was saying was that I had drunk too deeply of the cup, anything I t

"Men never do evil so completely and cheerfully as when they do it from religious conviction."  (Blaise Pascal, mathematician, 1670) No sooner had he broken the news that British citizens were amongst the victims of the Kenyan Shopping Mall massacre than David Cameron started spouting the obligatory mantra that this act has nothing to do with Islam. This he said just as news was breaking of an attack on a church in Pakistan by the Pakistani Taliban, killing at least 78 people. [1] Nothing to do with Islam, really; Cameron says this of a group fighting to enforce sharia law, resurrect the Caliphate, and in a manner not seen since the holocaust, singled out non Muslims of any age or sex for slaughter.  Politicians feel they need to come out with this kind of nonsense lest we imagine that the Muslim shopkeeper at the end of the street is liable to start murdering his customers at the drop of a real or imagined insult. Statements like Cameron’s are not only deeply

I am currently attending a journalism course in Chelsea ; Chelsea is one of those areas of London that truly speaks to the truth of the city being a collection of villages. If I did not live in Notting Hill I would settle for Chelsea . With its hidden nooks and crannies and irregular streets it possesses great charm.  Of course it is been long prey to the ravages of the developers and property speculators, a good portion now consisting of absentee owners, Russian Oligarchs or Arab Sheiks, neither group having gained their wealth by   any means that might be said to further the development of mankind. They occupy but do not live in the area, contributing nothing to the local community. This is particularly sad in Chelsea which has contributed so much to the cultural life of the city, from the pre-Raphaelites to hippy communities of the 1960's.  Soon the area will be as dead culturally as any of those villages in Cornwall solely consisting of second homes. Of course

There is a whine that goes up around the Westminster commentarati, usually around election time, respecting the public’s disengagement with politics. This takes the form of bemoaning public apathy and cynicism. The so called ‘ Westminster Village ,’ as it likes to characterise itself, makes several profound errors when estimating the public mood, they confuse apathy with impotence and anger, and cynicism with contempt.   If you want to understand the roots of this mood you need look no further than the serialised memoirs of former ‘spin-doctor’ Damien McBride. Here is a man who seems to have ostensibly devoted a good portion of his life to feeding half truths or downright lies about fellow members of the Labour Party to the press, -the Tories simply didn’t feature in his malign consciousness, they were never the real enemy. Here is a man who was employed by the Labour party, whom we must therefore assume identified with the Labour struggle, who just over a year before t

We are about to enter the most momentous year in history of the British state since Irish independence in 1922. With a yes vote next year Scotland could break away from England and the rest of the UK . Even if the link is retained things will never be the same again. A genie has been let out, raising issues not just about Scotland but also about England and the nature of the UK . Yet thus far the English have largely ignored the debate over Scottish independence; when they have paid any attention, the response has often taken the form of irritation with what is perceived as the ‘constant bellyaching’ of the Scots. A recent opinion poll has shown strong support for Scottish independence south of the border, the motivation appears to be born of this irritation, little thought being given to the matter other than the sentiment ‘if they want to go, let them.’ Given both globalisation and the increasing trend toward ever greater devolution the demand for outright independen