Sunday, December 13, 2020

Six of the Best 983

Richard Kemp calls on Liverpool to move away from the mayor and cabinet system, which "essentially concentrates power into the hands of one person who chooses the Cabinet and then chucks out those that disagree".

"Because criminalising drugs does not really prevent drug use, decriminalising does not really increase it. Portugal, which decriminalised the personal possession of all drugs in 2001 in response to high illicit drug use, has much lower rates of drug use than the European average." Scott Atkins and Clayton Mosher on the global movement towards decriminalisation of drugs.

A classical education was never just for the elite, but was a precious and inspiring part of working-class British life, argues Edith Hall.

Stephen Greenblatt looks at the impact of the plague on Shakespeare's plays: "As a shareholder and sometime actor in his playing company, as well as its principal playwright, Shakespeare had to grapple throughout his career with these repeated, economically devastating closings."

"I can't help but wish, having watched Sparrows Can't Sing, is that she'd made a few more films like this before launching herself fully into the Carry Ons. There was certainly a buzz around Babs immediately after Sparrows came out. The premiere of the film attracted a wealth of publicity and many celebrities attended. Barbara was nominated for a BAFTA and was courted by American agents, making appearances on U.S chat shows." Carry On Blogging celebrates Barbara Windsor.

Rob Tannenbaum reminds us that, though disco and the Bee Gees are now widely beloved, that wasn’t the case 40 years ago.

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