Category Archives: Politics

A Loving Economy: Alasdair Gray’s ‘Poor Things’

Posted on 02/02/2021 by alasdairflett

I postponed the boat Glasgowward to two-thirds through the month and made it up a tier from three to four without arrest, though I intelligently left a Kindle on the Megabus as evidence of my transit (recovered a week later … Continue reading →

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Law and Theology: a review of Tom Holland’s ‘Dominion’

Posted on 18/12/2020 by alasdairflett

Law is like theology. It’s about interpretation, but at more than just a textual level. Theology is greater than mere wrangling over obscure or difficult passages in the Bible – it concerns the nature of their source and determining God’s … Continue reading →

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The Last Laugh: Scotland’s 17th Century

Posted on 07/08/2020 by alasdairflett

Once again, I have been googling things like “graduate interview questions” and how to prepare for an interview in x sector. They haven’t changed much, but a refresher always helps. Some of the wildcard ones always amuse me, like “what … Continue reading →

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“As a Roman arch survives the luxury of departed empire”

Posted on 26/06/2020 by alasdairflett

The title quote is taken from Arnold Bennett’s Old Wives’ Tale, an epic novel of 1908 whose essence can be distilled as the disastrous attempt of a lower middle class family to hold onto former Victorian glories while the structures … Continue reading →

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On Arendt

Posted on 18/06/2020 by alasdairflett

This June has felt remarkably like the last. A lot of doing not very much and feeling guilty, anxious and restless about that. Over the past few weeks, I’ve had to jump start the car a couple of times and … Continue reading →

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Money is a Memory

Posted on 02/06/2020 by alasdairflett

Last night we were talking about the tin mine at Warbeth. That and the problem geology posed to religion in the 19th century. I thought I ought to have included the mining operation in my Bronze Age spiel for the … Continue reading →

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General Knowledge

Posted on 21/05/2020 by alasdairflett

It’s May. At the end of the month, we could be heading into phase one of lifting lockdown. Had it not been for Coronavirus, the tourist season would be ramping up in Orkney and I’d be fulltime Skara Brae. As … Continue reading →

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Gray’s Gauntlet

Posted on 29/03/2020 by alasdairflett

“At least now there is something we all have in abundance – time” – one of the truisms of the Corona era. But time is what we’re fighting for now; the Quarry’s been brought in to buy it, to put … Continue reading →

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Mindforming Misattributions

Posted on 18/11/2019 by alasdairflett

I realise there’s no shame in being poor…but it’s no great honour either. The above quotation is from the musical Fiddler on the Roof and is spoken by the bumbling patriarch, Tevye before he launches into his song ‘If I … Continue reading →

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1979

Posted on 25/08/2019 by alasdairflett

I do not mean our political and civil liberties. They will endure. […] The threat is nearly invisible in ordinary ways. It is a crisis of confidence. It is a crisis that strikes at the very heart and soul and … Continue reading →

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