Category Archives: Politics
What made America great? On the trail of Laura Ingalls Wilder
It was the 2008 crash that somehow inspired me to finally read the Little House on the Prairie books. I was clearly craving comfort, safety, a kind of nostalgia for a vaguely remembered 70s girlhood in which I half watched … Continue reading
Posted in Books, Children, Culture, Film, History, Politics, Radio, Travel, Uncategorized
Tagged almanzo wilder, ayn rand, BBC America, BBC Sunday Feature, dean butler, laura ingalls wilder, mansfield missouri, Radio 3, rose wilder lane, the fountainhead, USA
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Stop making do. Is Britain up for mending a culture of exploitation?
A few years ago I was in a cathedral with 400 sixth formers. We were debating ethics and green living. Many seemed very concerned. “How many of you buy cheap clothes that you throw away?” I asked. I saw plenty … Continue reading
The poison that is destroying civility and how to fight it
âHow did you get into first class? You donât deserve to be in first class. âYou should be in common class. In fact, you shouldnât be in this country at all. âYou donât deserve to be here. âšBloody foreigners. Where … Continue reading
Posted in Crime and Justice, Culture, journalism, Media, Politics, Theatre
Tagged alexander mackinnon, BIG ISSUE, faisal islam, gina miller, jo cox, john bercow, John Major, monday club, Racism, sanaa shahid, this house
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How to win the coming culture war in 2017
A version of this article first appeared in The Big Issue magazine in January 2017. Journalism worth paying for. Available weekly from street vendors or subscriptions here. History rarely falls into neat numerical decades. I would assert the 1980s (yuppies, … Continue reading
Posted in Books, Comics/graphic novels, Culture, Film, Media, Music, Politics, Radio, Science Fiction/Fantasy, Theatre, TV, Uncategorized
Tagged ali smith, BIG ISSUE, books, cinema, culture, culture war, Disney, dr quinn medicine woman, dreamgirls, everbody's talking about jamie, feminism, film, FTW, henry krieger, Hollywood, jane seymour, jon musker, media, moana, pauline boty, politics, rogue one, ron clements, susan faludi, tv, tyrus wong, unforgotten, Wonder Woman
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How should broadcast news journalists interview and talk about extremists?
Over the weekend I spoke to veteran ex BBC journalist Robin Lustig, Berlin correspondent Damien McGuinness for an insight into Germany’s media and Stuart Stevens, Mitt Romney’s 2012 senior strategist for 2 articles I wrote for The Guardian and The … Continue reading
Posted in Germany, journalism, Media, Politics, Radio, Religion, TV
Tagged AfD, alt right, BBC, Berlin, BIG ISSUE, Damien McGuinness, Donald Trump, journalism, Luegenpresse, media, Mitt Romney, Nazism, Newswatch, Nigel Farage, Pegida, politics, Robin Lustig, Stuart Stevens, terrorism, tv
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We’ll get the President we deserve: Suzan Lori Parks on Hillary Clinton & America’s woman problem
“You’ve consumed too much of the Kool-Aid that the man has been serving you.” Pulitzer prize-winning playwright Susan Lori Parks came into the Front Row studio last week to talk about When Father Came Home From The Wars opening at … Continue reading
Posted in Books, Culture, History, Media, Politics, Radio, Theatre, Uncategorized, War
Tagged American Civil War, culture, feminism, Hillary Clinton, media, politics, Suzan Lori Parks, Theatre Royal Stratford, US politics, war
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Lessons for Trump and us all from the Ronald Reagan Memorial Library
âI wonder what itâs all about, and why We suffer so, when little things go wrong? We make our life a struggle When life should be a songâŠâ We should perhaps we grateful that the teenage Ronald Reagan never grew … Continue reading
Posted in History, journalism, Media, Politics
Tagged 80s, BIG ISSUE, Donald Trump, politics, Ronald Reagan
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When Cathy met Ken: Revisiting Cathy Come Home in Brexit Britain
The other night I watched Ken Loach meet Cathy – or rather the young actress Elle Payne, playing Cathy in a Cardboard Citizens’ staging of his 1966 landmark TV play Cathy Come Home. The production featured many actors with experience of homelessness. … Continue reading
Posted in Culture, History, journalism, Media, Politics, TV, Uncategorized
Tagged 60s, BIG ISSUE, cardboard citizens, Cathy Come Home, culture, Ken Loach, kitchen sink drama, London, media, politics, tv
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The trouble with superheroes taking on terrorism..
I love superhero comics and they’ve never been handled with more love than by writers and filmmakers who grew up on them too. And yet.. And yet.. In the latest Captain America Civil War film, when a terrorist bomb goes … Continue reading
How the Space Shuttle Broke My Heart
This weekend’s Radio 4 Extra Floating In Space 3-hour special (9am and 7pm Saturday Mar 1th and iplayer after) with Simon Guerrier explores the history and the fantasy of manned space exploration from the cosmonauts to dreams of Mars … Continue reading
Posted in Children, Culture, Design, Film, History, Politics, Radio, Science, Science Fiction/Fantasy, TV, Uncategorized
Tagged 70s, Carl Sagan, culture, film, FTW, nasa, Obama, politics, Space shuttle
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