I went to the Imperial War Museum a few weeks ago, to visit their revamped WW2 exhibition. I was at a concert in the evening, so thought I would pay it a visit beforehand. I didn’t get any further than the Holocaust exhibits – and couldn’t manage to get through all of these. This was partly on the grounds of time, as I was conscious I was going to start rushing through the displays, which…
I suppose I should write of recent events. It has been a strange couple of weeks here in the UK. As I write, we are in the last 24 hours of official mourning for HM Queen Elizabeth II. I work with clients in the US, who have asked me how we are all keeping, how we feel and how we are coping with the loss. I can only speak for myself, when I say that…
Tarnishing and Rust On empire’s home-port shore,an old strength resisting.Lucknow to Sierra Leone,yellow fever to mutiny,marble balm for victories’ loss. A row of forgotten obelisks;lists of salt-seasoned names,of letters that shined like surffused in iron and brass,to seal a collective sigh. But stone flakes into shrapnel, the once hard edges of words,soft and reddening. Metal breaks down and dissolvesinto the reckoning earth. First published in Poetry & All That Jazz (2021) Portsmouth is full of monuments to…
Or not. Penny Mordaunt, who I am lucky enough to have as my MP, has thrown her hat in the ring to be the next Prime Minister of the UK. This is someone who made the egregious claim that Turkey was about to join the EU, when less than a minute spent checking for evidence of this showed it to be completely untrue. She either knew it was a lie or couldn’t be bothered to…
I’ve just been reading an article on the Open Democracy website about concerns over Russian money being pumped into the Conservative party, and how those donations, both to the central party and individual constituency MPs, might be a bit of a security concern. It’s from 2019. https://www.opendemocracy.net/en/dark-money-investigations/revealed-russian-donors-have-stepped-tory-funding/?utm_source=tw Another article (and there are plenty of them) from 2020 names a range of government ministers whose constituency parties have taken Russian donations; https://www.businessinsider.com/russia-report-donors-boris-johnson-conservative-party-2020-7?r=US&IR=T Our Prime Minister proudly…
It’s a truism that messianic war mongers are willing to send others to their death. Seemingly at ease with their decisions to condemn both civilians and soldiers to an early grave. So focussed on their own destiny, they seem happy enough to throw away the destinies of so many others. They sicken me with their rhetoric about hard decisions that have to be made, when they are insulated from the consequences. I’m still trying to…
How was Eunice for you? Or Dudley? Or Corrie, Malik, Barra or Arwin? Are you looking forward to Gladys, Herman, Olwen or Ruby? I’ve read some of the reports, seem some of the data. There’s lots more of this, and worse, on the way. We all know this. But we kid ourselves that someone, somewhere has the solution. And maybe they do. And is there anything we as individuals can do, whilst oil companies make…
So our great leader is off to Kiev next week. I’m sure he’ll do a brilliant job at minimising the risk of war between Russia and Ukraine. Just as he’s done such a brilliant job of everything else, not just whilst PM of course. I am so tired of his mendacity, and of his government’s complicity in enabling it. And then there’s the constant gaslighting by Johnson and his cabinet colleagues. As if the rules…
The anthology, “Poetry and Settled Status for All” (CivicLeicester, 2022) is now available https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/1916459374 The anthology presents 114 poems and short prose pieces from 97 writers from around the world exploring themes that include lived experience of migration, refugee and undocumented migrant experiences, and the hostile environment. The anthology features contributions from seasoned writers with many publications to their names alongside emerging voices and has been described variously as “powerful”, “thought-provoking” and “effective”. I have a…
A new poem that may well have a new title every few months or so…. 12032 We both inhaleand exhale the same airfeel cold in our fingertipswarmth on our backssee the world with similar eyes(though my sight is apparently shorter) So why the fuck do you still vote Tory? NB. 12032 people voted Conservative at the North Shropshire by-election It’s not just Johnson. I loathe the whole gang of grifting scumbags. If you truly, genuinely,…