The new Coalition government in Britain is a Thatcherite project by another name, as can now be seen - with its main goal to make the State wither away - the total opposite of the Marxist aim of having Capitalism dissolve. As such, it is a purely market-driven (and ideological) construct, no matter how liberal or fair it claims to be. There is something thrilling and caustic, being in the hands of such clearly driven engineers. But also dangerous. Many people will be hurt by this, and some corporations not enough. To attempt to replace government spending with export as a large chunk of the economy in three years is wildly ambitious. Canada did it in the 90s. And turned sharply right ever after. 33 years after The Sex Pistols (as poet Tony Lewis-Jones has reminded me) we all have something to shout about again.
THAT HANDSOME MAN A PERSONAL BRIEF REVIEW BY TODD SWIFT I could lie and claim Larkin, Yeats , or Dylan Thomas most excited me as a young poet, or even Pound or FT Prince - but the truth be told, it was Thom Gunn I first and most loved when I was young. Precisely, I fell in love with his first two collections, written under a formalist, Elizabethan ( Fulke Greville mainly), Yvor Winters triad of influences - uniquely fused with an interest in homerotica, pop culture ( Brando, Elvis , motorcycles). His best poem 'On The Move' is oddly presented here without the quote that began it usually - Man, you gotta go - which I loved. Gunn was - and remains - so thrilling, to me at least, because so odd. His elegance, poise, and intelligence is all about display, about surface - but the surface of a panther, who ripples with strength beneath the skin. With Gunn, you dressed to have sex. Or so I thought. Because I was queer (I maintain the right to lay claim to that
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Don't blame me! My wife and I both voted Labour. This outcome was entirely predictable and everyone who is too young to remember Mrs Thatcher will be able to experience at first hand the privation and misery of life under a Tory administration.
Best wishes from Simon