Thirty years on, Oliver Letwin’s mental mix-tape of ideology and racism is weirdly anachronistic; a Kajagoogoo track on a Radio 6 Music playlist. But in the 1980s so-called ‘SPADs’ like him were new and shocking. … More The Unbearable Lightness of Ideology
Thomas Prior’s photos of the New York City neighbourhood of Willets Point — reportedly the inspiration for Fitzgerald’s famous “valley of ashes” passage in The Great Gatsby. … More Jay Gatsby’s ‘Valley of Ashes’
If there’s a lesson to be learnt from recent incidents of censorship in the UK arts sector, it’s that a really noisy public protest will close a show that you don’t want to see – or want others to see either. … More When free expression comes second to fear of protest
Some Britons don’t want to be English, I hear. Well, I do. Britishness is a qualified status to me, an unlovable token given to people classified ‘British-Asian’ on their paperwork. … More Englishness: More of a state of mind, really…
The SNP model of nationalism is that it is concerned not just with what or who you are, but also with what you will do and can be. Nationalism on these terms offers so much more to the Scots people today than the prospect of independence tomorrow. … More Making nationalism a wee bit more constructive
There is more than meets the eye in the row over PEN American Center’s decision to give its new Courage Award to Charlie Hebdo, and the resulting boycott by a handful of its high-profile literary supporters … More No Buts, But… A ‘But Head’ Writes
Tove Jansson, creator of the Moomins was born 100 years ago today. The Moomin books were a childhood favourite of mine. She created this amazing world full of weird fussy, angry, optimistic, loving and neurotic creatures who were all wonderfully sympathetic, even the scary ones. I re-read them as an adult and I was immediatly … More Love, war, tea and sympathy in Moominland
Nobody knows better than the Tricycle Theatre what to do with funding from war-mongering governments. They earned millions in Arts Council funding during the years of Tony Blair’s war on Iraq and a bit more besides during John Major’s supposedly attrition-lite no-fly version. … More The Tricycle loses a wheel
According to Sri Lankan lore, I understand, you should keep an image of your devils close by, so you know what they look like – and where they are. Here’s mine, George W Bush and Tony Blair, photographed in April 2003 as I was on my way to Baghdad, the war just underway. The photo … More Keeping my Devils close
