The Fairfax 400 Conference took place at the Centre for English Local History, University of Leicester, on June 30th and July 1st, commemorating the 400th anniversary of the birth of Thomas, Lord Fairfax (1612-1671). Continue reading »
Tagged with Politics …
Review: Cosi @ The King’s Head Theatre, Islington
On 12th July, I accompanied a fellow enthusiast to see Knightmare’s Edmund Dehn in the Australian play Cosi at the King’s Head Theatre, Islington. Here follows a review of a gripping, humorous, and thought-provoking production. Continue reading »
Privacy and Parliamentary Privilege
This recent period has been plagued with privacy issues, the biggest of which, no doubt, has been the issue of super-injunctions and the exercising of parliamentary privilege. So, what is parliamentary privilege? Continue reading »
A Vote of No: Social Media and Sacrifices
Regular users of social media networks will no doubt have noticed – if their friends lists are anything like mine – that politics is again becoming a very public sport. Yesterday, a referendum was held on whether to adopt the ‘Alternative Vote’ system, turning social networking sites into moral and ideological crusades. Continue reading »
A Long Winter’s Tale
A summary of research activity from January-March 2011. This features a lecture by Nigel Smith at the Andrew Marvell Centre in Hull; a teaching event at the University of York; and the biannual British Milton Seminar at Birmingham Central Library.
An MP Turning Down a Secret Bribe? Bipolar Privacy
There are two sides to privacy: the bright side and the dark side. It is often politics which brings these to the fore. I was pleased to stumble across an anecdote about Andrew Marvell from the mid-eighteenth century that celebrates (as well we might today) the value of an honest politician. Continue reading »
Private Education: Universities, Fees, and Futures
With student protests, planned anarchy, university sit-ins, the attack on the Royal cavalcade, we have attempted revolution on our streets once again. Here, it becomes necessary to divide the issues from the vitriolic protests that were carried out in response. Continue reading »
Public Hypocrites and Private Anger
To speak in one way and act in another is something almost all of us do. We would be hypocrites ourselves to deny it. Often, it is a tool of diplomacy, of fitting in, even of subjugating oneself. A look at royalism, privacy and hypocrisy in the seventeenth century. Continue reading »
Measuring Privacy: An Ode
The ‘Horatian Ode’ is the most exciting poem in English. History, fate, and ‘ancient rites’ bend and snap under the sheer force of Cromwell. It’s a poem tells us a fascinating story in the aftermath of one of the most ‘climacteric’ episodes in English history. Continue reading »
Life Never the Same Again
After 17 days of isolation, 33 miners consigned to die underground found a way to break their silence. Their rescue tonight, after months below ground, marks a great celebration. But how can the globe’s new heroes return to normality after this? Continue reading »
