Re: “Do you care that Andy Burnham is a Catholic?” by Matthew d’Ancona, TNW #491
Although society values individualism, we share a spiritual dimension to our lives, whether we have a religious faith or not. We all search for meaning.
Iris Murdoch considered humility to be the primary virtue. In contrast, our society emphasises individual rights, ignoring the moral requirements of our duties to others. It is Burnham’s humility, his acceptance of uncertainty, which gives me hope of a future.
David Jeffrey
It is because of these arguments that the French people enacted their law of laïcité in 1905. Everyone is able to hold whatever religious views they have, but religion should not be part of the functioning of the state.
This doesn’t mean that French politicians hold no personal religious views. Laïcité and understanding how it works is considered a significant part of integration into French society – for good reason.
Adam Petch
The idea that religion should be nothing to do with government is a false one. That in itself is an ideological position as it promotes individualism and materialism. Christian teaching puts the emphasis on community and relationships to others.
The irony that, especially in the US, religion is now being used to justify an extreme right wing agenda, needs to be exposed. It fails the basic “love thy neighbour” test.
Jens Jensen
The problem with the Catholic Church is that everything connected with it appears to directly contradict the principles of Christianity. It bothers me that people can belong to an institution so heavily immersed in hypocrisy.
Janet Bayford
Re: “Why the papers say Burnham is stuck in the 1970s,” by Mic Wright, TNW #491
You can smell the fear on the right. Maybe Andy Burnham will be able to chip at the foundations of Thatcher’s legacy. Someone needs to.
Shane Sidlow
A brilliant takedown of a bunch of out-of-touch dinosaurs who get into print purely because newspaper owners share their delusions.
Simon Riley
Re: “Britain’s catastrophic new water threat,” by Paul Mason, TNW #491
If the cyber-attack threat to our water system is real, then we are screwed. Polluted rivers, antiquated infrastructure, squandered profits and slow investment, and never a straight answer. If the government does not wake up to this threat, they will be negligent in the worst of ways. I shall be emailing my water company today.
Adam Primhak
I was very disappointed by Paul Mason’s piece. The solution is not nationalisation.
The country cannot afford to buy out all the English water companies and mend the damage done by the years of private running of the water system. Any money available may better be spent on defence, education or road maintenance.
Some of us are old enough to remember pre-privatisation water. In those days, politicians set the level that householders had to pay. The charges usually did not keep up to a level that was necessary to maintain and improve the system. The same would happen again.
David Mason
Swindon, Wiltshire
Re: “The Oddity: My 48 hours with Truss, Farage and the new right,” by James Ball, TNW #491
Many of the contributors at this conference have one priority: short-term income. They need to feed the social media following they have built to pay their bills. The fact that someone like Lucy Connolly is now able to use her notoriety to earn a living is such an indictment.
Charles Bradshaw-Smith
It’s weird and unsettling, much as any reasonable British person can see through every single one of these devious weirdos, I fear they can still obtain traction for their lunacy.
Keith Brisley
Re: “Why not shop secondhand,” by Caroline Marie, TNW #491
I was forced to give up a perfectly good working phone because software upgrades meant some essential apps would no longer work. This philosophy of repair, reuse, recycle should extend to software.
John Bridger
Re: “This is Christopher Nolan’s world,” by John Bleasdale, TNW #491
I find Nolan curiously overrated. I don’t think he is a bad film-maker, indeed in his technical proficiency he is a very good one; however, like Tarantino his films get far more praise than they deserve. They are cerebral blockbusters but blockbusters nonetheless; slick, well made and conservative.
The lack of critical distance from Nolan tells you a lot about the mediocrity of much current film writing (I absolve John Bleasdale and Matt d’Ancona from this charge as they have at least attempted to say why they like Nolan).
As James Monaco writes in How to Read a Film, “since the rise of television-show criticism in the early eighties, thumbs have replaced theories… we are in a period of consolidation, not invention, of acceptance, not revolt…the film world is now eerily quiet and sedate”.
Will Goble
Suggested Reading
This is Christopher Nolan’s world, and we’re lucky to live in it
Re: “Discombobulating art of making up words,” by Peter Trudgill, TNW #491
Could Peter Trudgill turn his language skills to inventing some highly needed new words? When milk is “the fluid secreted by mammary glands of female mammals”, calling white fluids derived from plant products such as almonds, oats and soy “milk” is anomalous while “non-meat meatballs” and “non-chicken chicken nuggets” are self-contradictory.
For the future sustainability of the food system we need to shift to a higher proportion of plant-based foods and it would help if Peter could suggest new terminologies to match the new foods.
Dr Miriam Greenwood
BELOW THE LINE:
Re: “Kevin Keegan was my babysitter,” by Matt Kelly, TNW #491
When I lived in Peaky Blinders country back in the 70s, Ali and Duncan Campbell – both members of UB40 – were our babysitters. We once went skinny-dipping with them in Small Heath Park lake, only to discover later that the IRA were storing weapons and dynamite in it. Lucky escape.
Nick Wigg
Re: “The mystery of Andy Burnham’s missing bookcases,” by Marie Le Conte,” TNW #491
I remember when Ken Clarke’s “blokey” image was enhanced by his love of cigars, jazz, beer and football. I also remember another Tory of the same era complaining that Clarke was the most politics-obsessed, one-track-minded politician and that the image was utterly fake. A peek at Andy’s no doubt carefully curated bookshelves would provide little proof of who he is.
Simon Garrett
Marie Le Conte says that unlike Andy Burnham, Keir Starmer never spoke comfortably on music. But via BBC Sounds, you can still hear the former PM on Desert Island Discs, speaking with passion about his choices. I suspect Starmer will be remembered more fondly than he was appreciated at the time,
Catriona Stewart
