The Mirror Crack'd

The concept of the nobility of labour is often attributed to the nineteenth century Scottish essayist, historian and philosopher, Thomas Carlyle. Has Rishi Sunak been reading him? In his book, Past and Present, first published in 1843, Carlyle wrote: "Labour is Life: from the inmost heart of the Worker rises his God-given Force, the sacred celestial Life-essence breathed into him by Almighty God; from his inmost heart awakens him to all nobleness, - to all knowledge, 'self-knowledge' and much else, so soon as Work fitly begins." Those opening words, Labour is Life, strike a chill into our hearts today, evoking memories of the notorious motto Arbeit macht frei (work liberates) emblazoned over the gates of the Nazi concentration camp at Auschwitz. That phrase itself is based on the title of a German novel of 1873  Die Wahrheit macht frei  (the truth liberates) by Lorenz Diefenbach. Carlyle was hugely influenced by German thought and the admiration was mutual, with Goet

The biter bit Ireland plans to return asylum seekers to the UK under new emergency laws, in an effort to stem arrivals through Northern Ireland. The taoiseach, Simon Harris, wants the proposals brought to cabinet next week amid concern that Rishi Sunak's Rwanda plan is rerouting asylum seekers from the UK. So, along with every other indignity heaped upon us by fourteen years of Tory misrule our EU neighbours now think of us as a third world country on which to offload their unwanted migrants. Sunak is clearly missing a trick here; the inexorable logic is that he should emulate his Rwandan counterpart, Paul Kagame, and charge a million quid a head for taking them off their hands. Hell hath no fury On becoming leader of the SNP and First Minister of Scotland on the resignation of Nicola Sturgeon, Humza Yousaf described the defection to Alba of his defeated rival candidate, Ash Regan, as "no great loss". He could little have imagined then that only a year later she would be

2026 marks the seventy-fifth anniversary of the Festival of Britain, a cultural celebration that aimed to lift the British people out of the post-war doldrums and instil feelings of joy and positivity after long years of struggle to recovery. Although a nationwide event, its focal point was the 27 acre (11 hectare) site on the South Bank of the Thames in London beside County Hall in what is now Jubilee Gardens. The only remaining physical legacy of the Festival, which originally included attractions such as the Dome of Discovery, the Skylon, the Telekinema and much more, is the Festival Hall, a world-class concert hall and arts complex designed by Robert Matthew and Leslie Martin in bravura mid-century style. The Festival was highly controversial at the time and was criticised by detractors as a socialist extravaganza and a shocking waste of public money. It was even mocked in song by Noel Coward. But it was also a huge popular success, attracting 8.5 million attendees during its brief

Sacrebleu! As Paris gears up to host the Olympics this summer those of a superstitious bent might be wondering what could possibly go wrong next. As if the catastrophic fire at Notre Dame Cathedral weren't a bad enough blow to national prestige today's news that the sails of the iconic windmill atop the Moulin Rouge fell into the street in the early hours of the morning, will send shockwaves through France. Luckily, no one was hurt in either incident but national pride will have taken a bruising. If I were a Parisian I'd be keeping a close eye on the Eiffel Tower. Hold your horses Talking of portents, what are we to make of the horses that bolted from the Royal Mews in London yesterday? The poor creatures ran terrified through the streets of the city having thrown their riders after being frightened by the noise of building work near Buck House. A white horse was seen to be covered in blood but, now recaptured, army vets are treating the animals' injuries. However, with

Tourism is hardly a new phenomenon and, from the 'milords' of the 18th century Grand Tour to the 'emmets' of 'English Riviera' day trips, the locals have always had less-than-flattering terms to describe the hordes of visitors descending seasonally on their communities. It is a love-hate relationship that goes back centuries, if not millennia; the trade-off between the economic gains and cultural losses of tourism. And the pursuit of balance between the two seems a pretty futile endeavour, at least if aimed at through legislation, taxes and tariffs. Consumer choice and the market forces of supply and demand seem more likely to hold sway, and they are brutal. Tourists are fickle and their loyalty cannot be taken as a given. Having destroyed the very things they come to see, tourists are liable to move on to despoil the next hotspot.  For most tourist destinations the influx is seasonal, providing at least some respite for the locals - a breathing space to recharg

I'm an inveterate petition-signer (Change.org and 38 Degrees rely on me) but I declined a recent invitation to sign a petition calling on the government to officially recognise St George's Day (23rd April) as a public holiday in England. The argument that because Scotland marks St Andrew's Day (30th November), Wales St David's (1st March) and Northern Ireland St Patrick's (17th March) England should follow suit failed to cut it with me. Of course, I accept that patriotism isn't the same thing as jingoism but I'm rather queasy about flag-flying under any circumstances, particularly so when those flags bear overtly religious symbolism.  I strongly believe we should be living in a secular state and, although we in England currently reside in a Christian theocracy, with our Head of State also being the Supreme Governor of the Church of England (the Protestant "church as by law established") I don't think we should be rushing to roll out the symboli

Dodgy dossier A friend recently gave me a copy of The Diary of a Secret Tory MP: Dodgy Dispatches from the Heart of Westminster which has kept me amused. Turns out the author is not a Tory MP after all but an ultra-marathon runner (who knew?) from Wales called Henry Morris. However, recent revelations from within the ranks of the Conservative government rather put Mr Morris' fevered imaginings in the shade. If he'd written about an MP called Willy sharing dick pics, or one calling an aide at 3.30am asking for £5000 to pay off "bad people" who'd locked him in a flat, one might have thought he'd gone too far. But truth really is stranger than fiction. Satire is not so much dead as lying stunned.   Uncommon law On which note, anyone having read A P Herbert's Misleading Cases or, like me, remembering with delight the BBC's wonderful television adaptations of the late-'60s and early-'70s, might have found themselves bemused, as I was, to be sitting

On 3rd February, in my piece Too darned hot , I warned of the rapidly deteriorating situation in the Spanish Canary Islands created by the double-whammy of overtourism and climate change, concluding: "it will probably take complete and catastrophic environmental collapse to force any action at all". Well, it seems, in the face of official inaction, that Canarians have taken matters into their own hands and forced the issue to the top of the political agenda. They have done so by confronting government propaganda with an archipelago-wide protest set to take place on Saturday 20th April.  Not that there hasn't been protest in the islands hitherto but it has been somewhat fragmented, largely due to geography. Now, protest has been galvanised pan-archipelago and the fact that four of the main islands are about to protest simultaneously is a game-changer which is alarming the political class. The manifestación (demonstration) has been denounced by nervous politicians, now fin

"The fact is that when I come to think it over, I find that there are four reasons for old age being thought unhappy: First, that it withdraws us from active employments; second, that it enfeebles the body; third, that it deprives us of nearly all physical pleasures; fourth, that it is the next step to death."  Writing his essay,  De Senectute (On Old Age), in 44 BCE, Marcus Tullius Cicero went on to refute these four supposed reasons in characteristically robust and forthright manner. Cicero wasn't one to sit about moping in his own old age; he remained actively engaged in the political life of the Republic whose survival, in the face of tyranny, he championed so fiercely.  Cicero was nine years younger than I am now when he met his untimely end yet he considered himself already an old man; or, rather, his society judged him to be so. His second point about age enfeebling is more germane. Physical decline had not yet impacted him but, six years on from my retirement, I