‘Now, what I want is, Facts. Teach these boys and girls nothing but Facts. Facts alone are wanted in life. Plant nothing else, and root out everything else. You can only form the minds of reasoning animals upon Facts: nothing else will ever be of any service to them. This is the principle on which … Continue reading Where is Thomas Gradgrind when you need him?
Author: jfmward
Author, bicycle enthusiast
Chapter 4: A visit to the boatyard
Bronze Toad has arranged for the Consortium to visit his ancestral boatyard with a view to restoring Small and Sheep's sailing boat which has been languishing neglected since they bought it at auction some half-a-dozen years ago. After a preliminary survey to establish what needs attention, Ink Monkey has gone rather deeper, researching what kind … Continue reading Chapter 4: A visit to the boatyard
Chapter Three: A Question of Scale
The Consortium join Ink Monkey in her research Badger came on Ink Monkey in the library, poring over books and plans. She had been busy all morning down at the boat with her measuring-tape and little black note-book. 'You're hard at work, Madam Secretary,' said Badger. 'O, hello Badger! This really is the most marvellous … Continue reading Chapter Three: A Question of Scale
Chapter Two: where to begin? an initial survey
The consortium being formed, Small is eager to start at once. He starts up from the table as if to go. Badger speaks calming words. 'Let us not be hasty! as Ink Monkey has indicated, we have much to learn. The best course is to do what we can at the outset and not waste … Continue reading Chapter Two: where to begin? an initial survey
Chapter One: A Consortium is Formed
Nearly half-a-dozen years have passed since Small and Sheep – the country's foremost questing pair – bought a boat at auction. It was a typically impulsive purchase on Small's part, who is always thinking of what their next quest will be. Although the boat was not in the best condition, being without masts or rigging … Continue reading Chapter One: A Consortium is Formed
This is not the system we need to reform
I am uneasy with the present clamour from all sides of the Opposition for an immediate General Election. It is based on the spurious ground that Rishi Sunak has no mandate to be Prime Minister. In fact, he has all the mandate he needs – he commands the confidence of the House. He does so … Continue reading This is not the system we need to reform
‘Let words be nice’ – reflections on Alan Garner’s ‘Treacle Walker’
[NB: this article assumes that you have read the book] All writing, it might be said, works by synecdoche: the writer supplies the part and from it we infer the whole to fill the space the writer leaves. Alan Garner is a master of omission: what makes it onto the page is spare and lean … Continue reading ‘Let words be nice’ – reflections on Alan Garner’s ‘Treacle Walker’
Coming back to Ludwig
Wittgenstein at the bar of the Folies Bergere By what James Joyce would call a vicus of recirculation, I find myself once more in agreement with Ludwig Wittgenstein after an unexpected falling-out. It was my reading of Wittgenstein’s well-known dictum that ‘the meaning of a word…is its use in the language’ along with his notion … Continue reading Coming back to Ludwig
The Shepherd Boy and the Philosopher: a fable about numbers
‘It's surreal to me that it's 2022 and there are still people out there who think 2 + 2 = 4 is an objective truth that was true before humans even existed and not just like a thing society agreed on because it's useful’ (culled from Twitter, where people say the most extraordinary things out … Continue reading The Shepherd Boy and the Philosopher: a fable about numbers
Trickster Johnson continues to expose the weakness of our ‘unwritten constitution’
If the United Kingdom survives Boris Johnson’s disastrous premiership it may yet be grateful to him. No one man has done more, and in so short a time, to expose the absurdities of our archaic political system and the weakness of its ‘unwritten constitution’ in which vagueness has too long been mistaken for flexibility. Johnson’s … Continue reading Trickster Johnson continues to expose the weakness of our ‘unwritten constitution’
COMPLEAT TROWZER 