MICK MCSHANE is roused by a band whose socialism laces every line of every song with commitment and raw passion
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Distant socialising
Writer JAN WOOLF on the unique opportunity lockdown provides to use our imagination
SAGE ADVICE: ‘We grow old because we stop playing’ — George Bernard Shaw
New releases from Mountain, Soul Asylum and Michael McDermott
ALEX HALL is disgusted by the misuse of ‘emotional narratives’ to justify uninformed geo-political prejudice
SUE TURNER welcomes a thoughtful, engaging book that lays bare the economic realities of global waste management
JOHN GREEN welcomes an insider account of the achievements and failures of the transition to democracy in Portugal
SIMON PARSONS applauds an imaginative and absorbing updating of Strindberg’s classic
PETER MASON is enthralled by an assembly of objects, ancient and modern, that have lain in the mud of London’s river
THE INTERTROPICAL Convergence Zone is known by sailors as the doldrums or the calms because of its monotonous, windless weather.
It’s a bit like that in week 10 of lockdown — or lockjaw, as there are less people to talk to. I’m not part of the gradual, ambiguous, sort of vague easing as I’m a member of the Oldish and I choose not to be out and about just yet. But then I’m on pensions so it’s a luxury choice.
I can only imagine the agonies people are going through whose livelihood depends on paid work. The platitudes about education coming from government are tired and predictable: “Children need to learn … missing out … ” etc. does not take into account that they or their teacher might get Covid and die.
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JAN WOOLF ponders the images of humanity that emerge from the tormented, destructive process of the Kindertransport survivor Frank Auerbach
