The Critical Commentator

                                                    Letters Sir, Your article “Schools wash clothes for deprived pupils” ... brought back a vivid memory. As a young student on teaching practice years ago, I was approached by a colleague and asked to synchronise my watch with hers. Wondering what spycraft was afoot, I did so, and was then asked to send a small 11-year-old, who suffered under the name of “Smelly Simon”, on an invented errand to collect some paper from the art prep room at exactly 12.15.  I sent him, whereupon the art teacher contrived to bump into the little lad and tip a bowl of water paint all over his uniform. She apologised, got him to change into his games kit, and had his uniform washed, dried and ironed by the domestic science staff before the end of the day. The boy went home showered, with clean clothes and a profuse letter o...

BBC The Flush of Youth Edgar Herbert Thomas (1862-1936) Photo Credit: Pembrokeshire County Council's Museums Service [CC BY-NC] …The obsession with youth is seeping into programme content. Radio 4 veterans have noticed an embrace of metropolitan identity politics, at the expense of issues that affect the station’s traditional audience. “We are ignoring vast swathes of people who live outside London, by focusing on liberal elites,” said another presenter. (The Times, 2019) Haven’t the media, in general, for a very long time, ignored vast numbers of people who live outside London? Books   The Twittering Machine – Richard Seymour A Reverie , Walter Langley (1852-1922) Photo Credit: Penlee House Gallery& Museum [CC BY-ND] … People today are the slaves of their fetishized, deified smartphones… and like the discredited cults it replaced, it doses the faithful with opium. …nowadays we are unsure whether the ma...

                                                            Education                                      Schools ask parents to pay for staff and books.                                        (This article was on the front page of The Times, 2019.) School Is Out , Elizabeth Adela Stanhope Forbes (1859-1912) Photo Credit: Penlee House Gallery & Museum [CC BY-ND] …Grammars, comprehensives and primaries are increasingly relying on families to pay for essentials and in one case have asked for £1,200 per child each year. Others do not specify amounts but are receiving £100,000 a year, some using campaigns that allow donors to choose wh...

                                       Philosophers: A Philosopher , Dominicus van Tol (c.1635-1676) Photo Credit: Grundy Art Gallery [CC BY-NC-SA] In France, “Slimani and Houellebecq are both provocateurs and intellectuals. They are serious thinkers who needle away at the moral values that underpin society with uncomfortable but important questions. In Britain, we have exiled our intellectuals from public life. Question Time panels are padded out with professional comedians and TV stars who offer cheap laughs but have nothing to say about our country as it faces the most serious crisis in its recent history. When was the last time you saw a philosopher on TV? England has a long and shameful history of anti-intellectualism.” (James Marriott, The Times , 2019) Why is there always a preponderance of politicians on Question Time? Surely there are articulate members of ...

                                 Modern Thinking Nymphs Discover the Narcissus , Thomas Stothard (1755-1834) Photo Credit: Tate [CC BY-NC-ND] Autosexuality …means being sexually attracted to yourself, having an actual romantic relationship with you and preferring it to one with someone else…The professed “autoromantic” Ghia Vitale is engaged to be married to herself after proposing in 2017. …But do remember that while you might use the term “autosexual”, behind your lovely, sexy back, others might be using another. Like “daft narcissistic tosspot.” (Carol Midgely, The Times, 2019) Daft narcissistic tosspot. Surely not, Carol? Apparently, one Japanese company offers self-marriage packages for single women and   those unhappy with previous marriages. Fitness Trackers The Water Wheels at Savassa, Italy, Henry Woods (1846-1921) Photo Credit: Leicester Arts and Museums Ser...

                                                  Kate Swan, the boss of the airport and station retailer SSP Group has suffered a shareholder revolt over her £6.2 million pay package as she prepares to leave in May after six years. She has been paid a total of £22.4 million since she lead SSP to a float in 2014. She holds shares worth £40.3 million. (The Times, 2019)                            Have the shareholders woken up at last? The Lords Studies made in the House of Lords John Lavery (1856-1941) Photo Credit: The Fitzwilliam Museum [CC BY-NC-ND] One in five members of the House of Lords work as consultants or advisors to private businesses while serving in parliament. An analysis by the Guardian of the register of Lords’ interests shows 169 peers reported ...

The Fugitives,    Honoré Daumier (1808-1879) Photo Credit: Glasgow Museums [CC By-NC-ND]                                       In Arizona …, a jury was unable to reach a verdict on Scott Daniel Warren, a college lecturer accused of conspiracy to transport and harbour migrants after providing them with food and shelter.  He faced up to 20 years in jail. He may still do if there's a retrial.   Meanwhile in Sicily, Pia Klemp, the German captain of the boat Sea-Watch 3, was charged with assisting in illegal immigration after rescuing migrants in distress in the Mediterranean. She, too, faces up to 20 years in prison. Warren and Kemp are the latest victims of a disturbing trend that has gone almost unnoticed: the threat by the authorities on both sides of the Atlantic to put on trial anyone who provides rescue or humanitarian help for migrants.  An i...

                                                Hopepunk Hope ,  George Frederick Watts (1817-1904) (and assistants) Photo Credit: Tate [CC BY-NC-ND] Anxious about the state of the world? Afraid of ecological apocalypse? Then “hopepunk” could be just the thing. Young people feel so overwhelmed by the bleakness of their existence that they no longer crave dark dramas, according to a senior BBC executive. Instead, the corporation is embracing a new genre of storytelling that emphasises positivity and kindness and has set aside £150,000 for an audio series to reflect it. Hopepunk…has been described as “weaponised optimism”, combining gentleness with the fight for social change. (The Times, 2019) Should I be anxious about not being anxious? As an American acquaintance once said to me gravely, many years ago: “If you ain’t got a problem you...