To rescue Kahlo from the clutches of the corporate art market, we need to acknowledge the overt and covert political dimensions of the work, demands GAVIN O’TOOLE
AUTHOR Lionel Shriver recently said something along the lines of all a bland, middle-class writer has to do to get published is to be a bland, middle-class writer. That degree’s not wasted, she’s not wrong.
Meanwhile, poetry’s own Bullingdon Club has been wearing diversity like Derek Smalls wears a tinfoil-wrapped cucumber. When you realise that the black authors they’re pointing to on their prize list have already been successful with US publishers, you have to ask yourself, who was it that took any risk there? No snark at the authors, they’re fine writers.
ROGER McKENZIE draws attention to the much-neglected oral traditions of the global South that define the identity – and therefore the liberation – of its custodians
As Scotland heads to the polls, the main parties offer variations on the same script, says MATT KERR
STEPHEN ARNELL looks back to when protesters took to the streets in London demand to Irish liberty, fair pay and free speech — and wonders what’s changed in 138 years


