Books, Poetry, Politics, RattleBag and Rhubarb, WW2

1940 and the #1940Club

Hope I’m not jumping the gun here but the #1940Club starts next week and I’ve been gearing up and getting ready.  The idea is simple. It’s a fun event with no pressure because you can choose anything from the year and read as much or as little as suits you. You can share on your blogs, Twitter, Instagram, Goodreads, in…

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City and Country, Politics, RattleBag and Rhubarb, The Sex Wars

New York City and Free Speech Not Welcome

Yesterday I took my stickybeaking self downtown to City Hall Park where Standing for Women was holding an event. You can read more about it elsewhere, but the basic idea of these events is a public setup with loudspeakers and the opportunity for any woman who wants to say something about issues affecting women to take the mike. Because many…

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Art, Film, Photography, Books, Poetry, Politics, RattleBag and Rhubarb

All Our Yesterdays with the #1936Club

There was a period in the early 1960s when my parents had a television (in those days you rented) and one of the programs I liked to watch was All Our Yesterdays produced by Granada Television. It was a look back in time based on the newsreel footage of that week twenty-five years ago –  a week-by-week journey through the…

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Books, Politics, RattleBag and Rhubarb, WW2

What ho! George Orwell and Cancel Culture

Few things in this war have been more morally disgusting than the present hunt after traitors and Quislings. At best it is largely the punishment of the guilty by the guilty. In England the fiercest tirades against Quislings are uttered by Conservatives who were practising appeasement in 1938 and Communists who were advocating it in 1940. –George Orwell P.G.Wodehouse –…

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Art, Film, Photography, Politics, RattleBag and Rhubarb, WW2

About Isms He was Never Wrong: George Orwell at the Café Royal

George Orwell had an interesting chance encounter with a blasé conspiracy theorist at the Café Royal in 1940. (See left). The young man is in the grip of a dangerous fallacy. As always with autocracy and totalitarianism,  Orwell nails it. The fallacy is to believe that under a dictatorial government you can be free inside. Quite a number of people console themselves…

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Poetry, Politics, RattleBag and Rhubarb

Communist, Nationalist, Fascist, Poet and Glasgow 1960

“I have too many books but I only have my shelf to blame.” The pun came via Twitter. As does my very limited knowledge of celebrity news. Thanks to Twitter trends I know that this week Kanye and Drake have had some long-standing feud about something or other and now it has taken a turn for the better for some…

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Art, Film, Photography, Politics, RattleBag and Rhubarb, WW1

Art and Treason: War Crimes and Responsibility

The Party told you to reject the evidence of your eyes and ears. It was their final, most essential command. His heart sank as he thought of the enormous power arrayed against him, the ease with which any Party intellectual would overthrow him in debate, the subtle arguments which he would not be able to understand, much less answer. And…

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Books, Politics, RattleBag and Rhubarb

Social Media and the Two-Minute Hate

Near the beginning of George Orwell’s 1984  our hero Winston Smith attends a rally at the Ministry of Truth where he works in the Records Department. It’s the daily ritual two-minute hate – a routine emotional release designed to keep everyone full of fear and enraged at the enemies of the state. Before the Hate had proceeded for thirty seconds,…

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Food, RattleBag and Rhubarb

Design Thinking: The Teapot and How to Brew the Best Cup of Tea

Design thinking – it’s everywhere in education. And that’s great because problems are everywhere and design thinking offers a way forward. It aligns with problem seeking, solution finding, empathy, integrative and interdisciplinary work, collaborative processes, open-ended thinking, revision and creative contribution – all that good authentic and relevant stuff. And it’s great that we seemed to moved a little beyond…

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