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| Friday 29 May 2009 |
Why you should care about the Oxford poetry scandal
The spat between Ruth Padel and Derek Walcott was an unappetising combo of namecalling and nitpicking that might have damaged one of the most important positions in British academia: Oxford professor of poetry.
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| Friday 22 August 2008 |
Why I am rabid about Rabbie
Ignore Jeremy Paxman’s attack on Robert Burns for being sentimental. The Scottish Bard was a fine, humanist poet.
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| Thursday 10 July 2008 |
Battle for China: the ballad of Qu Yuan
The clash between Chinese officials and radicals over whether an ancient poet was a patriot or dissenter is about more than literary heritage.
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| Thursday 20 December 2007 |
BBC, pogue mahone
As if the BBC's cack-handed censorship of the Pogues' Fairytale of New York wasn't bad enough, now it seems Beeb bosses want to sanitise every record they play.
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| Thursday 29 November 2007 |
William Blake: ‘rational and inspired’
William Blake had flaws. But 250 years after his birth, his humanist ambition is still - like his Tyger - ‘burning bright’.
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| Tuesday 1 May 2007 |
A tale of two murals
The global chatterati was outraged when a Banksy mural in London was painted over. They didn't seem to mind when a mural for a murdered teen suffered the same fate.
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| Monday 15 January 2007 |
Why I applauded the ‘BNP ballerina’
Who cares what Simone Clarke thinks in private? Her performance as Giselle was sprightly, springy and brilliant.
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| Friday 17 November 2006 |
Eavesdropping on Owen
On BBC Radio 3 this weekend British General Richard Dannatt cynically uses the poetry of Wilfred Owen to try to connect with the common squaddie.
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| Tuesday 22 August 2006 |
The anti-4x4 ad that backfired
Why Greenpeace is red-faced over its short film showing a 4x4 driver being bullied and spat at by fellow workers.
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| Tuesday 1 August 2006 |
Consumerism is evil? Don’t buy it
BBC 2’s Shiny Shiny Bright New Hole In My Heart shows that moral messaging can get in the way of good TV drama.
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| Monday 17 July 2006 |
Turning 7/7 into a modern morality play
A children's drama about the London bombings is spoiled by the tick-tick-tick of politically correct boxes.
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| Thursday 29 June 2006 |
Who’s afraid of the God squad?
From God’s Next Army to The Convent - why TV is so suspicious of religious conviction.
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| Thursday 1 June 2006 |
Not falling, dancing
Such is choreographer Russell Maliphant’s eye for discipline that he can even make a ‘broken fall’ into a work of art.
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| Thursday 18 May 2006 |
Throwing ‘terror tantrums’ for animals
Dispatches showed that animal rights activists are not so much public enemies no.1 as the political equivalent of Kevin the Teenager.
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| Thursday 11 May 2006 |
Death, dignity and distrust
spiked-TV: The Panorama special on assisted dying shows that both sides of the debate harbour an unhealthy suspicion of doctors.
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| Wednesday 12 April 2006 |
Speak for yourself
spiked-TV: It's not just the two mute children in Help Me to Speak who fear the reaction their words might get.
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| Thursday 16 March 2006 |
Dancing on TV: it’s a riot
spiked-TV: Strictly Come Dancing is fun but dance is capable of provoking much greater passions.
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| Tuesday 13 December 2005 |
Why polemics are killing poetry
Anti-war cod-poems 'silently beg you to SCREAM'.
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| Tuesday 15 November 2005 |
No rhyme or reason to poem panic
How did a 14-year-old's not-very-good poem about Hitler provoke handwringing about anti-Semitic teachers warping our kids' minds?
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| Tuesday 11 October 2005 |
A Howl against performance poetry
By elevating energy and gusto over talent and judgement, performance poetry is strangling the real thing.
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