A picture and a poem for our PM Rishi and his cabinet … for all those ‘real men’, in Westminster and Whitehall.

‘But the new barbarian is no uncouth Desert-dweller; he does not emerge From fir forests; factories bred him; Corporate companies, college towns Mothered his mind, and many journals Backed his beliefs. He was born here. The Bravura of revolvers in vogue now And the cult of death are quite at home Inside the city’. WH Auden 1947 

bravura: great technical skill and brilliance shown in a performance or activity …

These words apply today to Main Stream Media journalists? Their journalism? Ruined. A journalism riddled with illusions, refusing ‘the tasks of time’. Auden writes:

‘Yet the noble despair of the poets Is nothing of the sort; it is silly To refuse the tasks of time And, overlooking our lives, Cry – “Miserable wicked me, How interesting I am.”

We would rather be ruined than changed,

We would rather die in our dread

Than climb the cross of the moment

And let our illusions die’.

A mural of Al Jazeera journalist Shireen Abu Akleh – murdered by Israeli Occupation Forces – on display, in Gaza City, 15 May 2022. (AP Photo/Adel Hana)