As our politicians keep on failing, affection grows for those who are unelected. Democracy itself is looking fragile
Who do you love more, those you choose or those whom fate or genes have chosen for you? Usually that's a personal question: who sits closest to your heart, the friends or partner you choose, or the family your DNA picked out for you? Put like that, it's an impossible choice. But framed another way – a more public, more political way – it seems we have an answer. And it's not the one you'd expect.
For a clue, book a ticket to The Audience, the play that sees Helen Mirren and writer Peter Morgan return to the character who brought them such success with the Oscar-winning film The Queen. Mirren's back as Her Maj, this time playing opposite not Tony Blair but eight others drawn from what she calls "the Dirty Dozen" who...
Who do you love more, those you choose or those whom fate or genes have chosen for you? Usually that's a personal question: who sits closest to your heart, the friends or partner you choose, or the family your DNA picked out for you? Put like that, it's an impossible choice. But framed another way – a more public, more political way – it seems we have an answer. And it's not the one you'd expect.
For a clue, book a ticket to The Audience, the play that sees Helen Mirren and writer Peter Morgan return to the character who brought them such success with the Oscar-winning film The Queen. Mirren's back as Her Maj, this time playing opposite not Tony Blair but eight others drawn from what she calls "the Dirty Dozen" who...
- 3/23/2013
- by Jonathan Freedland
- The Guardian - Film News
The late Christopher Hitchens enjoyed telling the story of meeting Margaret Thatcher in the late 70s, back when, as Mark Dery puts it in a cracking piece I'll get to in a moment, "the post-9/11 libertarian hawk and vorpal swordsman of the New Atheism was lefter than he is now." (Dery was writing in the summer of 2010.) Hitchens so enjoyed the telling and the retelling that the story eventually took on the form of a well-rehearsed stand-up routine. For comparison, you can watch a relatively short early draft here, but trust me, you'll want to take the five-and-a-half minutes for this one:
For Mark Dery, the crucial question is, "Why does a certain sort of Englishman squirm with delight at the thought of being taken in hand and sharply disciplined by Milton Friedman's idea of Emma Peel? And the flip answer is: the English Vice, French prostitutes' wry term...
For Mark Dery, the crucial question is, "Why does a certain sort of Englishman squirm with delight at the thought of being taken in hand and sharply disciplined by Milton Friedman's idea of Emma Peel? And the flip answer is: the English Vice, French prostitutes' wry term...
- 1/3/2012
- MUBI
Meryl Streep and state papers may portray a more nuanced Thatcher – but her divisive legacy should not be rewritten
My new year's resolution for 2012 is easily stated. Avoid lazy labels and simplistic stereotypes in political commentary, even when it is about Margaret Thatcher. As with all such resolves, this one is easier to say than to do, since few reputations have become so set in stereotypical aspic as Thatcher's. She remains worshipped on the right and excoriated on the left, with almost no middle ground. What more is there to say?
Quite a large amount, in fact, if the state papers from 1981 – released by the National Archives at midnight last night under the 30-year rule – are a guide. Documents from one of the most embattled early years of Thatcher's 11-year premiership depict a rather more nuanced and pragmatic politician than the officially sanctioned labels of visionary or villain would allow.
My new year's resolution for 2012 is easily stated. Avoid lazy labels and simplistic stereotypes in political commentary, even when it is about Margaret Thatcher. As with all such resolves, this one is easier to say than to do, since few reputations have become so set in stereotypical aspic as Thatcher's. She remains worshipped on the right and excoriated on the left, with almost no middle ground. What more is there to say?
Quite a large amount, in fact, if the state papers from 1981 – released by the National Archives at midnight last night under the 30-year rule – are a guide. Documents from one of the most embattled early years of Thatcher's 11-year premiership depict a rather more nuanced and pragmatic politician than the officially sanctioned labels of visionary or villain would allow.
- 12/30/2011
- by Martin Kettle
- The Guardian - Film News
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