A review of “The Secret Commonwealth” by Philip Pullman
February 5th, 2020 by Roger Darlington
This is the second part of the trilogy “The Book Of Dust”, following the original trilogy of “His Dark Materials”. This novel is a sequel to the first three, set some 10 years after them and therefore some 20 years after “La Belle Sauvage” which was the first part of “The Book Of Dust”. The whole of the narrative is set in the same universe as “La Belle Sauvage” which, in the words of “Northern Lights”, is like our own universe “but different in many ways”.
We already knew from the first trilogy that there were people (witches) and places (the world of the dead) when humans and their daemons could be separated, but the shocking revelation of this novel is that Lyra Belacqua/Silvertongue (now a 20 year old Oxford University student) and her pine-marten daemon Pantalaimon are not just separated but estranged, so that they are apart both physically and temperamentally. Even more troubling, we learn that there is trouble in the Far East with men from the mountains (aka The Brotherhood of This Holy Purpose) attacking both a research institute and rose growers because apparently a type of rose oil has some special characteristics in some way connected with the powerful instrument the alethiometer and the strange phenomenon of Dust.
This means that much of the narrative is a constant switching between journeys on the way out to this Far East by Lyra herself, her separated daemaon Pan, and the resouceful Malcolm Polstead (who as a boy rescued Lyra in “La Belle Sauvage” and is now an Oxford scholar). At the same time, they are being tracked by a part of the Magisterium known as the Consistorial Court of Discipline which has an althiometer and someone who can read it – as can Lyra – with the new method (Olivier Bonneville, son the the man who tried to kidnap Lyra some 20 years earlier).
Meanwhile what is the secret commonwealth of the title? We are told little, but advised that it is a “world of half-seen things and half-heard whispers” including “fairies, spirits, hauntings, things of the night”. And we learn no more about Dust itself. As Lyra asks herself: “And Dust? Where did that come in? Was it a metaphor? Was it part of the secret commonwealth?” We are told that” “We need to imagine as well as measure”.
This immensely readable work of some 800 pages finishes with nothing resolved, so that the reader can barely wait for the third and final element in “The Book Of Dust” when hopefully all our questions will be answered.
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American politics in (in)action
February 4th, 2020 by Roger Darlington
- They can’t impeach a president who is as guilty as hell.
- They can’t count caucus votes in one of the least populous states in the union.
If you want to know more about the American political system, check out my guide.
But we Brits can’t be smug.
- We couldn’t hold a clean referendum on the most important constitutional question of our lives.
- It took us three and a half years to implement this deeply flawed decision.
If you want to know more about the British political system, check out my guide.
Two cheers for democracy!
Posted in American current affairs, British current affairs | Comments (0)
A review of the latest Clint Eastwood film “Richard Jewell”
February 4th, 2020 by Roger Darlington
I’m not sure how well this film will do outside the United States since the titular name will be unfamiliar to non-Americans. Jewell was a security guard at a concert celebrating the 1996 Summer Olympics in Atlanta when he spotted a suspicious backpack and managed to have most of the nearby spectators cleared from the area before three pipe bombs exploded causing one death and injurying over 100. At first he was hailed as a hero but then the FBI and a local newspaper decided that he was the prime suspect for the crime.
Directed by the veteran Clint Eastwood, this a familiar story for him of a brave individual battling against an incompetent and uncaring bureaucracy, last told in his movie “Sully”. Certainly it is well-acted with a convincing portrayal of Jewell, the obese, obssessive, loner, by the little-known Paul Walter Hauser and a fine support cast of better-known actors including Kathy Bates as Jewell’s adoring mother, Jon Hamm as an FBI agent who pursues him, Olivia Wilde as the journalist who sets him up, and Sam Rockwell as the attorney who defends him.
Eastward is an acccomplished fim-maker and story-teller, but this is a by-the-numbers tale that is hardly his best work and understandably it has been criticised for its misleading representation of “Atlanta-Journal Constitution” reporter Kathy Scruggs.
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Why does Iowa always vote first anyway?
February 3rd, 2020 by Roger Darlington
Today Democratic Party supporters in the state of Iowa will hold caucuses to decide who they want as their candidate in November’s American presidential election. Iowa always goes first in the selection process which gives this small, rural, white state exceptional importance – but why?
Well, it hasn’t in fact always been the case. Democrats started the practice in 1972 and the Republicans followed in 1976. When Jimmy Carter surprisingly won Iowa in 1972 and went on to become both the candidate and the president, the importance of the state being first became firmly established.
“The really important thing to remember about Iowa is not that it’s first because it’s important. Iowa is important because it’s first,” said Kathy O’Bradovich, political columnist for the Des Moines Register
But, still, why does Iowa go first?
It happened after the 1968 Democratic National Convention which was marred by violence over the Vietnam War and racial tension. The Democratic Party nationally and in Iowa decided they wanted to change their process to make it more inclusive.
Part of that meant spreading the presidential nominating schedule out in each state. Since Iowa has one of the more complex processes — precinct caucuses, county conventions, district conventions, followed by a state convention — it had to start really early.
You can learn more here.
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“The Night Of The Bayonets” – a World War Two story that you’ve never heard
February 1st, 2020 by Roger Darlington
In the dying days of the Second World War, a group of Georgian soliders rebelled against their German ‘comrades’ on Texel Island off the coast of The Netherlands. It’s an amazing story brought to light by my good friend Eric Lee.
In December, he was interviewed by Dan Snow (also known as “The History Guy”) about his upcoming book, “The Night of the Bayonets”. The interview went live on the History Hit website this week and you can listen to it here.
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While British politics has calmed down a lot, American politics remains as exciting as ever
January 31st, 2020 by Roger Darlington
By the end of today, Britain will have left the European Union after being a member for 47 years. A foreign friend asked me if there was an air of excitement. I explained that, since the decisive general election of 12 December 2019, there has been a sense of resignation. Those who supported Brexit thought it should have happened soon after the referendum, while those who opposed Brexit (which includes me) are really sad at our departure.
Meanwhile, over in the United States, there has been massive media coverage of the impeachment proceedings in the House of Representatives and now the Senate. As expected the Democrat-controlled House supported Articles of Impeachment, but the Republican-controlled Senate will dismiss the charges.
The only questions are: will the Senate agree to call witnesses and how damaging will the Congressional proceedings be to Donald Trump’s chances of re-election to the White House? It looks like the Senate will block the attempt to call witnesses – in which case proceedings could be over in a day or two – but then I expect that former National Security Adviser John Bolton will go public on television with confirmation that Trump did insist on a ‘quid pro quo’ with Ukraine.
Of course, we still do not know who the Democrats will field to oppose Trump in November’s presidential election, but the nomination race is about to enter a decisive phase.
Iowa will hold its caucuses this Monday 3 February; New Hampshire will have its primary on Tuesday 11 February; Nevada will hold its caucuses on Saturday 22 February; South Carolina will have its primary on Saturday 29 February. All of these four states are small and the first two are very white – so not representative of the overall electorate but maybe decisive in choosing the eventual winner.
Vermont’s independent senator Bernie Sanders looks like doing really well in these early races and the Democratic establishment is scared that, if he eventually wins the nomination, it will be a repeat of the Jeremy Corbyn experience in the UK: a man who is enormously popular with activist party supporters but unappealing to the voters at large.
Former Vice-President Joe Biden may do badly in the early voting and his assumed support among African Americans will not help him in the first four states in the nomination contest. But he has enough money to stay in the race even if initially he does poorly.
The radical Elizabeth Warren and the centrist Pete Buttigieg and Amy Klobuchar are the other main contenders in these early polls. However, the billionaire Michael Blumberg is not running in these four states but spending an unprecedented amount on media in the states that will vote later.
So things may not become much clearer until Super Tuesday 3 March when no less than 14 states have primaries, including huge ones like California.
Posted in American current affairs, British current affairs | Comments (1)
Last of the RAF’s Battle of Britain fighter aces dies – but the victory was not a wholly British effort
January 30th, 2020 by Roger Darlington
The Battle of Britain in 1940 was a decisive turning point in British history and we owe an immense debt of gratitude to the 3,000 Royal Air Force pilots who defended this country against a proposed German invasion.
We have just heard the news that the last of the British aces of that conflict has died aged 101. He was Paul Farnes who shot down five Luftwaffe aircraft in the Battle and more later in the war. But this is a time to remember that one-fifth of all the RAF’s pilots in the Battle of Britain were not in fact British.
There were contingents from many other Allies countries, most notably Poland and Czechoslovakia. The 88 Czech pilots included Josef Frantisek, who was the top-scoring RAF pilot of the Battle, and Karel Kuttelwascher, the father of my ex-wife. You can read more about the contribition of Czechs to the wartime RAF here.
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Could the explanation for dark energy be something called massive gravity?
January 25th, 2020 by Roger Darlington
Sometimes it’s good to raise our eyes above national and global politics and think about cosmological matters. For instance, why is the universe expanding at an accelerating rate when the known laws of physics suggest that this ballooning should be slowing down?
The explanation might be something to do with what scientists have called dark energy which is estimated to account for 70% of the contents of the universe. A radical theory that would support this is called massive gravity which – contrary to Einstein’s theory of general relativity – postulates that the particles that mediate the gravitational force have mass.
A theortectical physicist promoting this theory is Professor Claudia de Rham and you can read a little more about her thinking here.
Now, didn’t that take your mind off Trump and the coronavirus?
Posted in Science & technology | Comments (0)
Who would be the Democrats’ best choice to defeat Donald Trump in the battle for the White House?
January 24th, 2020 by Roger Darlington
The ‘New York Times” editorial board spent a lot of time talking with the candidates and deliberating on their preferred individual. In the end and most unusually, they decide to back two candidates: Elizabeth Warren and Amy Klobuchar.
This feature is a thoughtful assessment of the strengths and weaknesses of the different personalities running for the candidacy, so it is worth reading.
Some of my closest American friends are backing Bernie Sanders again but, if I were an American, I think I would be supporting Elizabeth Warren. Let’s see – the contest starts in earnest very soon.
Iowa will hold its caucuses on Monday 3 February; New Hampshire will have its primary on Tuesday 11 February; Nevada will hold its caucuses on Saturday 22 February; South Carolina will have its primary on Saturday 29 February.
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How liberal is America’s Democratic Party?
January 21st, 2020 by Roger Darlington
Last weekend, I went on a one-day course at London’s City Literary Institute with the title “Liberalism And The Democratic Party: From FDR To Today”. The course was delivered by Brian Kennedy, a knowledgeable and eloquent American who hails from Boston.
We were told that a progressive wing of American politics first developed in the Republican Party with Teddy Roosevelt becoming the first progressive US president. The Democratic Party first embraced a progressive agenda with the election of Franklin D Roosevelt, a distant relative of Teddy Roosevelt. He took office after three years of the Depression and instituted a radical programme of economic stimulus, job creation and relief of poverty which he called the New Deal. FDR went on to win an unprecedented four terms in the White House in 1932, 1936, 1940 and 1944 before he died in office.
Originally, FDR’s running mate had been the Left-winger Henry Wallace, but the party managers judged him to be too radical, so he was replaced by Harry Truman who took over from FDR in 1945. He developed a package of policies that he called a Fair Deal which included proposals for a national health care system which were abandoned. He promoted racial liberalism.
The next Democratic president was John F Kennedy whose support for civil rights was actually begrudging. Perhaps surprisingly, it was Lyndon B Johnson – who took over from JFK when he was assassinated – that turned things around with a collection of radical policies which he called the Great Society and the War of Poverty. He was a powerful advocate of desegregation which caused Democrats to lose their historic control of the South.
Jimmy Carter was a rather conservative Democratic president. Bill Clinton, in spite of his approach of triangulation, was more radical. He made a failed attempt at reforming health care and proved to be particularly popular with African-Americans.
During the years of the second Bush presidency, Democrats tended to replace the term liberal by progressive. The advent of the first black occupant of the White House with Barack Obama promised much to the progressives. He did deliver reform of health care but, in many respects, he was a cautious leader and his policy of targeted assassinations by drones did not win him favour in certain quarters of the party.
In so far as it is possible to summarise a day of discussion, I guess the conclusion has to be that the Democratic Party has never been that liberal or progressive, certainly since the exceptional historic circumstances that prevailed when FDR first took office. There has been a real hesitancy in the party about moving away from the centre in case it upsets the electorate too much.
We saw this tension very dramatically when Bernie Sanders (not actually a Democrat) ran so closely against Hillary Clinton for the Democratic presidential nomination. We are seeing it now with the strong showing by both Sanders and Elizabeth Warren in the current nomination race.
Among many factors, two stand out as making it tough for the United States to have a genuinely Left-wing party: first, the electoral system which effectively demands that political parties appeal to a majority of the electorate; second, the massive influence of money in American politics which means that the rich can fund huge campaigns and lobbies against any progressive candidate or policy.
But maybe this year will see the beginning of transformational change …
Posted in American current affairs, History | Comments (0)