CHRIS SEARLE welcomes a startling vision of contemporary Newport from a veteran photographer of the British working class
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Common sense alternatives
Smokestack Books are launching collections of radical poetry in 2014 which challenge the right-wing agenda of austerity and war
ANGUS REID recommends a very unusual documentary: a love story between two disillusioned journalists
In verse and polemic, the bard points out that he is a poet and musician, not a political party
MARIA DUARTE, JAMES WALSH and ANDY HEDGECOCK review The Invite, My Father’s Island, Nirvanna: the Band, the Show, the Movie, and Oh My Goodness!
PAUL DONOVAN is chilled by the contemporary resonance of Harper Lee’s coming of age tale amidst racism and white supremacy in this excellent production
GEOFF BOTTOMS recommends the unashamedly light-hearted escapism on offer in this stage version of the 1963 film
We all like to think that we talk common sense. It's common sense, isn't it?
David Cameron describes himself as a "common-sense Conservative." Ed Miliband believes in something called "common-sense policing." Last year Nigel Farage wandered around Britain on the "common sense" tour. The BNP claim to be offering a "common-sense alternative" in the forthcoming European elections.
Of course most of this is simply special pleading, an appeal to the authority of an unspecified and imaginary consensus to legitimise ideas that are usually anything but common sense.
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