The Joy of Six 1339

Anthony Painter explains how Britain's weak economy is limiting Labour's room for manoeuvre: "What is the difference between the austerity state and the Brexterity state? There was a way out of the austerity state. And in fact, ahead of the EU referendum, things were starting to recover. They recovered enough to give the Conservative party a majority in the 2015 election. Sometimes you have to think we are cursed. That majority enabled them to follow through on an insane referendum. The rest is, well, not yet history."

"Due to the collapse of my country, which surrendered to Russia in full view of the world on February 28, 2025, I have been seeking out dissident voices from the past ... to help us figure out what we need to do in the present." Heidi Siegmund Cuda turns to Václav Havel’s dissident essays from 1978, The Power of the Powerless, to learn how people can find a collective way back from democratic ruin.

Taylor Noakes explains how Donald Trump has brought a divided Canada together - against him.

Are mental health conditions overdiagnosed in the UK? On The Conversation, Susan McPherson (professor in psychology and sociology) and Joanna Moncrieff (professor of critical and social psychiatry) have an enlightening debate.

"In a nation that often demands that Black people perform either rage or gratitude, George Foreman dared to be something else: complex." Bryan Armen Graham on the career of the twice world heavyweight champion.

Sheila O'Malley dissects the artistry of Joan Crawford: "Crawford was extremely smart in choosing material for herself once she was in a position to do so. She had to campaign hard for some of her best roles. She understood her own persona intimately. Acting teachers often say that self-knowledge is even more important than talent. Crawford knew which roles were 'hers' even before she had landed them."

The Joy of Six 1080

Rupert Read argues that Vaclav Havel’s critique of technophilia and of its assumption that "everything is going to be OK" has a lot to teach us about what our collective response should be to the climate and ecological emergencies.

"The politics of relief pursued by Bolton’s Labour Party left little scope for recognising workers ... as individuals with ambitions and aspirations. By contrast, Conservative candidates in Bolton mobilized a politics of experience, rooted in place, which enabled them to speak in more respectful, empathetic terms. Where Labour referred to the "unfortunate unemployed," Conservative candidates discussed the "evil of unemployment," refusing to define local workers by their current circumstances, instead addressing them as "men and women out of work". Research into Labour politics in the Bolton of the 1930s by Rebecca Goldsmith has contemporary resonance.

The Lost Rainforests of Britain by Guy Shrubsole is reviewed by Richard Smyth: "His enthusiasm is catching (at least at first): you can’t read without wanting to have a wander yourself through these dripping microclimatic wonderlands, among trees ‘heavily garlanded with beardy lichens’, the ‘spreading filigree of liverworts’ and the ‘translucent fronds’ of polypody ferns."

mudlark121, on Past Tense blog, remembers the campaign against another oil refinery on Canvey Island: "On Saturday 19 May 1973, 700 Canvey Islanders organised an 'oil-mada', hundreds travelling by ship, boarding the boat at Tilbury, with banners and posters and ‘graveyard’ crosses, sailing up the Thames, to put hand a protest letter to the prime minister at 10 Downing Street."

Alan Moore is interviewed by Miles Ellingham about his new book of short stories: "Take Northampton: we had mammoth hunters here, we had Romans, we were the centre of the country in terms of how the Saxons saw things. We had the Normans, but we fell out of favour because of Hereward the Wake, a local terrorist who used to be one of the great English legendary heroes when I was growing up."

Miles Malleson is remembered, if at all, as a bit-part player in British films. But, says Graham McCann, he should be remembered as a committed Communist organiser and a sex pest too.

Six of the Best 218

Welcome to The Libertine, "the blogging platform for young Lib Dems".

"All his life, Havel lived by the belief that if you wanted something to happen, you had to do something to make it happen, and damn the consequences, including arrest and prison, and possibly even death. Speaking about the early days of the post-Stalin thaw, he once said: “The more we did, the more we were able to do, and the more we were able to do, the more we did.” It is a fine summary of his attitude, and, in a sense, his legacy." Paul Wilson writes about the legacy of Václav Havel in the New York Review of Books.

Jock Coats argues, against George Monbiot, that libertarianism is naturally green.

The solution to hospital bed crises is not necessarily more beds, argues Slugger O'Toole, looking at the experience in Northern Ireland.

Nicholas Whyte looks at Scotch on the Rocks, a strangely prescient thriller written in the 1960s by Douglas Hurd and Andrew Osmond.

"Few places I've visited have such a powerful and unique identity as Dungeness and I could see instantly why Ravilious had felt at home. The lighthouses and miniature railway and power stations and eccentric little houses were part of it, but what appealed to me most was the evidence of passing time." James Russell follows in the footsteps on Eric Ravilious and Derek Jarman.

Six of the Best 211

Rolling Stone examines the influence of the Plastic People of the Universe on Vaclav Havel: "Until meeting the band, Havel was not exactly a cultural avant-gardist. "There's a letter from prison where he's asking his wife to buy the latest Bee Gees album," says Wilson, who has translated many of Havel's writings. Once acquainted with the Plastic People and their circle, however, Havel became their unofficial patron. The band played many shows in the barn at the country house where he died on Sunday."

You can read all about the January 2012 issue of Liberator on Liberal Democrat Voice.

A View from Ham Common finds Louise Mensch at the bottom of a deep hole, digging furiously.

Edward Lucas writes on Diplomaatia about the prospects for Estonia: "Every one of the EU-10 – the new(ish) members of the union – has falling unemployment, growing economy and a manageable deficit. That is not the case in the supposedly more solid 15 countries of the old EU. But Estonia is in a class of its own."

The sign of the Three Swans, Market Harborough, is one of the favourites of English Buildings.

Go Litel Blog, Go... experiences the inexplicable splendour of City of London Churches at Christmas.

Remembering Vaclav Havel

From the tribute on Huffington Post:

"A great fighter for the freedom of nations and for democracy has died," said Lech Walesa, his fellow anti-communist activist who founded neighboring Poland's Solidarity movement. "His outstanding voice of wisdom will be missed." 

Among his many honors were Sweden's prestigious Olof Palme Prize and the Presidential Medal of Freedom, the highest U.S. civilian award, bestowed on him by President George W. Bush for being "one of liberty's great heroes." 

An avowed peacenik whose heroes included rockers such as Frank Zappa, he never quite shed his flower-child past and often signed his name with a small heart as a flourish. 

"Truth and love must prevail over lies and hatred," Havel famously said. It became his revolutionary motto which he said he always strove to live by.