OBSERVATIONS

Anyone who writes has to to deal with, often ill informed, hostile critique of their writing.

On BBC Radio Four's Start the Week a year or so back Gore Vidal heard his book being slated as meretricious. Gore's response, 'Mmm, meretricious, meretricious and a happy new year!'

Now that's the way to do it.

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NESRINE MALIK AND THE UNSUNG VIRTUES OF HYPOCRISY

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As I write this a 27 year old woman, Mariam Ibrahim, has just had a baby in a Sudanese prison, ‘the condition of the mother and baby is not known as Ibrahim's lawyer and her husband, a US citizen, had been denied access to her. Omdurman women's prison has a basic clinic, where the child is thought to have been born. Ibrahim has been shackled since being imprisoned.’ [1]   Mariam also has an 18 month old child who is also being held in prison with her. The ‘crime’ for which she is imprisoned is apostasy, for which she has received the death sentence. She has also been sentenced to 100 lashes, for the additional crime of having sex with her Christian husband. Although she has been a lifelong Christian her father was a Muslim, Sudanese sharia law forbids women to marry outside the Muslim faith, men needless to say can do as they please in these matters. Mariam Ibrahim and her husband.  Nineteen countries punish their citizens for apostasy, and in 12 of those countries...
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VOLINE AND TROTSKY

Волин и Троцкого A Footnote in Russian History In April 1917 the Russian anarchist revolutionary Voline* and Leon Trotsky were both stranded in New York as the Russian revolution broke out in Petrograd , inevitably coming into contact with one another. Voline stated that he felt that the Bolsheviks, given their ruthlessness and single minded determination, would ultimately come to power. They would then begin eliminating their opponents, amongst whom of course were the anarchists; this persecution would end with the Bolsheviks shooting the anarchists “like partridges.” Trotsky was dismissive, they might have their differences but they were comrades in arms, they had different interpretations of the revolutionary process but shared the same goals. It was nonsense to speak of Bolsheviks shooting revolutionary comrades, “we are socialists, comrade Voline! So we are not your enemies….” [1] In December of 1919, whilst gravely wounded Voline was captured by the Bolshe...
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THIS OTHER EDEN

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Ed, 'Pull on a sweater' Davey Gas and Electricity company British Gas raise their prices by 9.2% way above the current rate of inflation, with wages stagnant and benefits rises pinned to below the rate of inflation this will drive ever greater numbers into fuel poverty, with even more people making the stark choice between heating and eating. …A government, Minister Ed Davey, suggests putting on a sweater at home to keep warm. Queues Outside Southwark Crown Court Thousands of people living on very low incomes queue outside Southwark Crown court in London after being summoned for non payment of the local council tax. Previously there had existed a welfare payment to cover the cost of paying the tax for those on low incomes. The government abolished this benefit last year. The latest figures from the British Charity the Trussell Trust show that the demand for food banks is rapidly increasing…more than 350,000 between April and September this year received a thr...
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