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Showing posts from June, 2016

There is neither Leaver nor Remainer...

Like many Brits (and not just the 16.1 million who voted as I did), I am sad for my country right now. I am sad because I believe that Brexit spells economic disaster which will hit the poorest hardest, isolation from a wider community which I consider myself a part of, and the probable eventual break-up of the UK. But aside from the actual outcome of the referendum, I am sad at the deep divisions that the campaign process uncovered, exploited and exacerbated; the "tribalization and polarization of Britain, a bruising clash of two narratives that pitted London against the regions, Scotland against England, the young against the elderly, and the lower middle-class against the metropolitan elites" (Austen Ivereigh writing for ABC Religion and Ethics ). I am appalled at the hostility, mistrust, deceit and turmoil; the upsurge in racist abuse and the reflection that it is only the outward manifestation of something pre-existent, erstwhile latent. Even if the departure goes ah

When Church Throws Political Shapes

I danced, the other day ... on the roof of a multi-storey carpark, in the rain, at bedtime. With relative abandon. It feels like a world away and an epoch ago but it really happened. I didn't go there to dance. I went there to watch –  Of Riders and Running Horses , part of Bristol's marvellous  Mayfest . Ooh, it were good. All exuberance and intensity and graceful, skillful, womanly  inelegance  for want of a better description. All set to all this live, pounding, alt-J-esque electronic indie music. I don't know what they meant  for it to be about but what I saw was a profound reclamation of the human body ... from shame, objectification and violence ... for personhood and personal connection. Normally, I would consider a finale which evolved into an invite to the audience as the perfect opportunity for an unhindered escape. "Aha!" some flat, lifeless part of me indeed piped up – "I can get me a clear run on the narrow stairwell before it jams with cro