RDN on Guardian’s Comment Is Free (Cif)
I was bucked to have a piece run on the Guardian's Comment Is Free (Cif). I was bemoaning Mr Cameron's Makeover Politics. Here are a few reflections on the comments it received. Read more...
Richard D North.
On culture, Nature, liberal issues, monasticism, spiritualityPage 40 of all posts
The Hurt Locker: Gritty, sure. But realistic?
The courage of EOD - bomb disposal - staff is well worth celebrating and Kathryn Bigelow's The Hurt Locker does it brilliantly. Still, this is perhaps not all that accurate an account of the trade. Read more...
A Single Man: Surprisingly simpatico
Everything about the buzz surrounding Tom Ford's film led one to expect the worst. To overstate the case, one expected a sort of style fascism. Read more...
The British and Ronald Searle
Searle is 90 tomorrow and Channel 4 News ran a tribute interview. Typically, the commentary had to have a little attitudinising. Read more...
A New Military Covenant: The 21st century warrior?
The British military tradition is real, but it is up for grabs. Here is my account of a British military which becomes large, clever, multi-purpose, and is deployed worldwide. Along the way, it becomes more commercial, more part-time and more argumentative. Read more...
Which party wants a modern state?
I want to scrap the BBC, expand the military, phase out the NHS and the rest of the Welfare State, empower Whitehall. What is this unholy muddle? And how does affect politics? Do the Tories get it? Read more...
The Tories lack “bottom”
The Tory leadership under David Cameron clearly lack something. Their followers don't know what the party's for. The Cameroons are a bit controlling. Blairite, then. But there's something more... Read more...
Sex & Drugs & Rock & Roll: 6 out of 10
S & D & R & R has a lot going for it, but it's a little lame in some departments. Read more...
Revolutionary Row: Gorgeous but thin
Sam Mendes is a very good director but he has a track record of disliking capitalism and isn't a lot better about human relations. Revolutionary Road makes these points almost as well as American Beauty did. Read more...
Stewart Brand’s Whole Earth Discipline
Drawing on one aspect of Stewart Brand’s new Whole Earth Discipline, this is a rather dense (mercifully short) note about the weakness of most discussion about the merits of action on climate change. Read more...