E Y E W E A R, THE BLOG - FREEDOM MEANS BEING UNAFRAID TO WRITE WHAT YOU THINK

So 'Freedom Day' is tomorrow, and the UK Health secretary has Covid, and the PM and other top ministers in the government have to self-isolate for ten days because they spent time with him... cases are rising so quickly that delivery systems are collapsing under the strain of worker absence due to quarantine and illness. The government's idea to 'let the pandemic rip like the flu' IS WRONG. 1. deaths remain low, BUT the virus spreads quickly and makes people ill enough to need time off or hospitalisation in sufficient numbers to cause societal and economic chaos; 2. an idea that people only want to avoid death - many also want to avoid organ failure and long-term survival on respirators, or six months of brain fog. The farce should end. It won't, probably, but they should delay Freedom Day, and then scrap the idea and replace it with an on-off switch like in a world periodically attacked by space vampires - when it is green, we can go out normally; when it is r...

The laws announced in a dramatic speech last night at 8.30 pm live on BBC television by PM Boris Johnson are the most astonishing ever, in a UK context. The history of Britain, since Magna Carta at least, has never witnessed such draconian measures; indeed, not even the most fevered of ancient kings would have imagined ordering EVERYONE to stay indoor for 3 weeks, under penalty of sanction. That these laws do not go far enough, in this blog's opinion, is a measure of just how serious the current global pandemic is. Indeed, it is of grave concern, now that cases are arriving in Africa, that death rates have been so high in Italy - a country with superb health care. The concern for all humane persons must be what such a deadly virus could do on a continent with far fewer hospital beds or ventilators per capita than Europe, which is itself stressed to breaking point, with many healthcare workers themselves dying from Covid-19. Those who deny or diminish the dangers of this novel ...

When a brilliant scientist like John Ashton says the government's Covid-19 strategy is wrong, you should sit up and listen. See his bio below (note he is not the author of this editorial). Today, the top scientist in Boris's circle of boffins, 'Sir Patrick' , said he was comfortable with 60% of the UK population getting the disease - because we need 'herd immunity' and that it will 'return annually' and that 'it can't be stopped'. All of these comments should get him replaced immediately. Consider if your top general announced the enemy could not be defeated? You'd fire him. More seriously, this almost inhumanely-cold approach (reminiscent of notorious mid-century experiments on large populations) takes for granted that 1% of the population will (must) die for this 'herding' to work... that's giving up on upwards of half a million people in the most threatened categories in the UK alone... This extraordinary idea - t...

This brilliant medic thinks the West is ill-prepared for the pending pandemic. It may seem ironic that the editor of Drawbridge Britain , a book which advocated for humane open borders, would now suggest we (briefly) close them for health reasons, but I do think the time is here to act boldly, and intelligently. Clearly, this is a threshold moment, when action is still possible, to avert unimaginable chaos and sorrow. To stop a disaster of biblical size. Covid-19 is now a pandemic, in all but name . It is in 40 countries, has no cure, spreads easily, and kills 2-3% of everyone it infects; there are expert suggestions the death rate by year's end would equal or surpass that of the 1918 influenza epidemic. It is estimated by government studies that up to 1,086,176 or more UK citizens would die from the virus within a year (based on estimates of 80% infection rates, and 2% death rates), if it begins to spread unchallenged here, as it is now doing in Iran, and Italy. Major e...

ON THE SUPREME COURT RULING AGAINST THE PROROGATION OF PARLIAMENT, two sonnets Rain is impartial, it falls On the client, the accuser, And the bewigged court, Without favour, without fervour; The rain functions like law, It delivers its decisions On days of death, days of birth; It touches the heavens, the earth, The in-between citizen; Unlike snow, love or hatred It never thaws; it flows Where learned minds have led… It arises, in distant tumult, Above mortal struggles of those Who would play gods to ants; To go below Machiavel faces, Reading past their blank pages, As a void, to where morals plant Forests that build up parliaments, The wood that grows strong vaults. Rain is not passionate, It is sane, measured, sober… You can drink the rain Unlike wine, and not go wild; Though sometimes, supreme, It makes people run in streets In what is only apparent chaos, To partially plan, partially drea...

much has changed... 18 YEARS AGO, like most everyone else, I watched the planes hit the twin towers on this day, on television, and was stunned. I felt instantly this was a different level of historic event I was witnessing - the world had changed. That gets said a lot, but 9/11 was a major shift - the start of the 21st century that has led, one way or another, to where we are today. IRONICALLY, the rise of the digital social media world, and the collapse of the banking system a decade ago, coul d not be foreseen then, nor Trump, Brexit, or the resurgence of Russia and China, and the relative decline of America, in the world. Nor that a Black President would be twice elected in a once slavery-owning nation. IN SOME WAYS, 9/11 feels like a much-more-distant event, now - like Pearl Harbour, or the Charge of the Light Brigade - because the 2003 illegal war in Iraq, and then the tragic destruction in Syria, as well as the enduring Palestinian-Israeli conflict, not to mentio...

some rogues are less welcome than others Depending on which newspaper you opened this morning in Britain, we in the UK are either facing a major constitutional crisis, or have a brilliant and determined PM doing the will of the people. This is because yesterday, Boris Johnson prorogued parliament for about 5 weeks, thereby closing it down to parliamentary debate, and the anticipated manoeuvres of a coalition of anti-no-deal-Brexit MPs. In Canada, former Tory PM Stephen Harper also deployed this dramatic move, and it was decried then, though Canadian democracy is still alive and kicking today. It was last used in the UK by John Major in 1997, and is not quite as arcane as some commentators claim - but it is almost impossible to locate another instance of a government proroguing parliament for so long during such a serious moment for the nation, knowingly shutting down the parliamentarians from doing their jobs. The problem is, if one revisits the first sentence of this essay, yo...

For observers, it must seem incredible, but the UK is as close as it has now ever been, since Cromwell, to a civil war that could lead to a new sort of model of governance. Unless the EU blinks and gives in to PM Johnson's clear demand to remove the so-called Irish Backstop - which seems unlikely if not impossible - then the government will seek a No Deal crash-out from Europe. However, since the opposition MPs and fed-up backbench Tories actually have the majority numbers, they could easily vote no-confidence in the Boris leadership, and normally this would result in an election, and Johnson's resignation. This is not situation normal, though, and with Cummings onboard, the alleged sociopath, and acknowledged Brexit legislator who cunningly planned the Brexit win of 2016, there is now a grumbling sense that Johnson may simply ignore the parliament's votes and soldier on. This would create a unique constitutional crisis, and bring the Queen in, which is not a sol...

Yesterday's parliamentary vote made British history - the government's Brexit deal lost the support of a vast majority of the House of Commons, losing by 230. To put this in perspective, this is the BIGGEST LOSS EVER for any government in UK's history. To make matters worse, the Prime Minister Mrs May, refused to resign afterwards, and seems incapable of adjusting her bearings sufficiently to locate a compromise Plan B that could pass, before a No Deal Ultra-Hard Brexit occurs on 29 March - the so-called Cliff Edge. Meanwhile, the Speaker of the House, Mr Bercow, seems driven to enter history as the man who undermined executive authority in the parliament, moving the control of the order of business from the Cabinet to the back benches; such a transition would represent a revolution no less significant than Cromwell's time, in terms of the sudden shift of power in the land. Making this turbulent, exciting, and deeply worrying crisis in British democracy all the more f...

The Eyewear blog is no stranger to hyperbole - I can go over many of our past posts, as editor and chief writer, and see claims of looming disaster, downfall, or war, that never quite materialised; crisis is the loom on which a poet spins his best writing. The past week in Britain - to be dramatic, in British history - has been different.  It rendered me speechless. While there were some facebook declarations, I could not face this blog, or gain the strength to compose lines on this debacle. I have been profoundly hurt by this nasty decision. It has all been said, and at least as well by others. I think the Downfall video meme, featuring Boris Johnson , may be the best, but Jonathan Freedland, Polly Toynbee, AC Grayling , and others, have also done a good job of sketching out the horrors ahead, and the horrific causes of them. But the past week has just been plain bad for England, the UK, the world - and me personally, too. Since last Thursday I have lost my 12...

SHE WAS A SPY The new UK Spy bill being mooted - see here - is unacceptable, and yes, will out people's private browsing habits, which are more personal and potentially embarrassing or damaging than we might care to admit, as a society. Simply put, a large percentage of the British public uses the Internet to do one or more of the following: a) cheat on a spouse or partner; b) look at (legal) porn; c) look at (illegal) porn; d) read up about suicide or mental illness or some other illness they may wish hidden; e) illegally pirate/ download American TV shows; f) pirate music, books, movies; g) explore other odd, eccentric or very personal hobbies or obsessions. If the government is able to collect the data exhibiting this behaviour, and if it is gathered, and then perhaps hacked, or simply used by their own unscrupulous intelligence agencies, mass harm to the society would ensue. This is because you could easily blackmail anyone in politics or any position of authority to...

HE WEARS EYEWEAR Something actually amazing has happened. Today. Perhaps not an Obama moment, quite - but close. The most left-leaning Labour MP (arguably) - a 500-1 shot - has just been elected Leader of the Labour Party - despite being vigorously opposed by most of the media, all leading Labour big beasts ( Blair, Brown , etc) and the Tories. And he won by a first-vote landslide of nearly 60% of over 400,000 voters (a huge number) - due to his brilliant grassroots campaigning, evident no-nonsense integrity, and lurch (in labour terms) back to solid socialist ground (leaving NATO, cancelling Trident, etc). Britain has - perhaps for the first time since the 1980s, if not earlier - a bona fide strong oppositional figure who represents exactly what the Conservatives do not - an alternative to rampant capitalism and industrial-militarism. Anti-austerity, pron-nationalisation of industries and railways, in some European capitals he would be considered normal. In the UK, where ...

Britons may be forgiven for waking up this morning thinking they are in a staging of Les Mis .  For today the news is this: benefit cheats can be imprisoned for up to ten years.  Now, I don't know about you, but that's the definition of draconian.  It may be morally repugnant to cheat the state of some money, but very few crimes legitimately warrant doing serious time in the klink.  Hard time is a serious thing to inflict on anyone - and it is likely to make a soft criminal a hardened one on release.  Rather than impose longer sentences for victimless crimes (the state is not a person), the state should find alternatives to cells, bars and Wormwood.

The fact that the British economy is partially bolstered by the arms industry is more than worrying - it is close to horrific.  There is no reason why a government should encourage the manufacture and sales of munitions to other countries - many of them at war or in conflict or likely to be.  It is clear that the capitalist system profits from the making and selling of weapons; and, as the climate grows ever-warmer in the next fifty years, the conflicts over scarcer resources will only make the profits grow.  The counter-argument is that if "we" don't sell the weapons then the Russians or the Americans will.  This argument could extend to the sale of opium, or slaves - both evil trades that eventually the British ceased trading in.  One day, the sale of weapons will be seen as an unambiguous evil.  Why has that time not yet come?

The Coalition in Britain - that unlovely beast - is selling off (privatising) The Royal Mail.  This is a tragedy, and one that Eyewear the blog opposes whole-heartedly.  The postmen and postwomen of the UK are a lifeline, and a wonderful friendly presence in an otherwise increasingly atomised world.  My own postman calls me "bruvver" which is very good of him.  His cheery smile is part of my day.  I shudder to think what will replace these people.  Meanwhile, Eyewear encourages readers to send in poems they have written, that somehow refer to Royal Mail.

Eyewear could hardly be a British blog and not notice that Margaret Thatcher has died , April 8, at the age of 87, of a stroke, in a London hotel.  Since her death, in almost Soviet style, the news has had near constant focus on her life and actions, in and out of government.  The BBC, usually unbiased, has been relatively hagiographic.  She was, it must be remembered, as well as being hugely divisive in life, a cultural force - the first woman PM, etc - and this is now being reflected. I was in Canada during her big years, and I recall her mostly through the anti-Thatcher songs, like 'Margaret On A Guillotine', that enriched the era.  I also recall being thrilled and appalled by the Falklands War, and songs like 'Ship Building', made famous by Costello , were also part of my youth.  I was not a Tory then, and did not like Reagan either.  However, I am not sure that Steve Bell 's acid cartoon of yesterday, showing Thatcher in Hell, is entirely civilised...

PM David Cameron has today pledged that, should his party win the next election outright, he will hold a referendum on Britain being in/out of the EU - if the EU does not agree to the UK's negotiating demands.  I've seen this sort of tactic with Quebec - it created economic uncertainty, and damaged the relationship there between provincial and federal levels of government.  Here, it is a worse proposition - for the UK is not an island that can, Reagan style, cowboy it alone.  The UK's natural home is in Europe, for reasons of a cultural, and financial reason.  Little Englandism aside, more is gained by the open borders and trade between Britain and the EU, tha n is ever lost - just ask the millions of Brits who travel to the continent each year, to holiday, work, or retire.  Tediously, the old cliche is true: relations are a two-way street, but Cameron is positing a dead end.  He must be voted out in 2015.

T he artist behind Yellowism, a small but legitimate art movement, Wlodzimierz Umaniec , has been imprisoned for two years in Britain, for defacing a small corner of a painting in The Tate. I love Rothko 's work and would never want to see his paintings ruined.  I do not support vandalism.  However, a two year prison sentence for the damaging of insured property seems sickening, at a time when no Bankers have been sent to prison, or any Politicians, over the financial disasters of the last four years. A man's life seems to me more important than a work of art, even two years of it.  There must be better ways to punish and protect in such cases.  Where are the artists and poets of the UK now, eager to save Pussy Riot , when Wlodzimierz Umaniec needs them?

Chidiock Tichborne , the greatest one poem poet in the English language, was executed at the age of 28 after a memorable stay in the Tower of London.  His elegy is one of the reasons I wanted to be a poet, as its force inspired me greatly when I was young.  Now, at the same age, Bethan Tichborne , his relation, has been charged after leaping a fence near to David Cameron , British PM, as he stood on stage with Santa Claus to light a Christmas tree. Tichborne was commended by judge Tim Dooley for her brilliant poetry collection, in the 2012 international Melita Hume Poetry Prize competition, which Eyewear runs.  Apparently, in this instance of activism, she was seeking to get near enough the prime minister, a believer in press freedom, so she could read out the names of those on "Calum's List" who have died due to the severe budget cuts imposed by the Coalition. Apparently these will continue for some time. Tichborne is a highly intelligent, strongly driven person of...

iconic image of London Riots 2011 August is the coolest month.  Or rather, it seems, despite its reputation for quietude, to have a lot happen in it.  However, one needs to look back, probably to 1947 and the   creation of India and Pakistan, to find another August quite as historic, on the world stage, and at home in Britain, as this one, in 2011.  Indeed, it would seem likely to say that, more or less, since August 1945, 2011 is the most fraught.  That's 64-66 years ago.  This August is seeing the apparent liberation of Tripoli and hence Libya, at last.  It has seen the riots in the UK that shocked the world (it was daily news in France where I have been this last fortnight).  And it has seen global economic turbulence that seemingly foretells the "decline and fall of the West" as Time put it on their cover.  With over a week to go, what else will this most august of months have to offer the world?