The Magic Mirror of Brexit

The Magic Mirror of Brexit

Reflecting on the UK’s December 2019 General Election, one thing above all others has been made clear to me. It is how few voters changed their minds about Brexit  in the 3 ½ years since the Referendum, in spite of the impassioned efforts of politicians and activists.

Why is this? Surely, one thought, as the contours of the possible Brexit landscapes became clearer over the months, there would be major reconsiderations (as proponents of a second Referendum argued). After all, as John Maynard Keynes said: “when the facts change, I change my mind”. 

The Predictor of Trumpism: Richard Rorty

The Predictor of Trumpism? Richard Rorty (1931-2007)

The US philosopher Richard Rorty achieved a species of  posthumous and retrospective fame, outside of academic circles, by “prediciting”, in 1998, the advent of Trumpisim. 

In Rorty’s view, the left-wing tradition in the US had swerved away from the dirty-hands business of practical politics, attentive to the political and economic needs of the blue collar classes. What the left had swerved towards was an academic-inspired tendency to “give cultural politics preference over real politics, and to mock the very idea that democratic institutions might once again be made to serve social justice.”

The Thing Itself: Antony Gormley at the Royal Academy

The Thing Itself: Antony Gormley at the Royal  Academy

There’s a drawing in the Antony Gormley exhibition at the Royal Academy that stood apart from plenty of others that did not detain me. It was larger than many; but what arrested my, by then, slightly bewildered gaze was the seeming familiarity of the subject: a shadowy, indistinct figure shuffling (fleeing?) away from the viewer, along a faintly sketched tunnel or crevice. Apart from the contours of the tunnel and the dark figure, the white paper is blank, suggesting a hostile frozen landscape.

Dogs and Deer in Norfolk

Dogs and Deer in Norfolk

After spending several days in Wells (of Norfolk, Next-the-Sea) I began gradually to be possessed by a conspiracy theory, one involving dogs.

Pompeii at the Ashmolean

Last Supper in Pompeii at Ashmolean Museum

The Exhibition’s title is not the most promising. Last Supper in Pompeii is glossed by the Ashmolean’s publicity as “…telling the story of this ancient Roman town’s love affair with food”. Last supper? Love affair with food? Oh really? Clunking metaphor and culinary cliché are not the obvious way to advertise the tragedy of Pompeii, except to a foodie archaeologist.

Blake at Tate

Blake at Tate

It is necessary for most people to be a bit picky when it comes to appreciating William Blake, who is the deserved subject of a large exhibition at Tate Britain (a "Blakebuster"?). Very few are those who have the patient scholarship to follow his art and writing through all their intricate visionary philosophies. Not many more, I should guess, fall into the category of general readers that, with the help of those scholars, have a good understanding of the preoccupations of his esoteric works.

Montreuil-next-the-Tunnel

Montreuil-next-the Tunnel

Just the other side of the Channel, less than hour’s easy drive from Calais, lies an enticing destination for a weekend visit (or even a day trip from southern England). This is the town of Montreuil sur Mer, a small but intricate and intriguing place a few miles from the coast. Once upon a time, up to the late Middle Ages, its river was a coastal, navigable estuary- hence the town’s now misleading name. That was also the reason for its original strategic importance. The strategic position led to Montrueil’s natural escarpment being continually fortified, and re-fortified (because occasionally sacked) over the centuries, culminating, after a final sacking by a Spanish-English army, in the C16 citadel and walls which still distinguish the town. The old part is enclosed by high ramparts, unbroken except by one road, with a goodly fort at the South West corner.