Daily Archives: October 2, 2014

It’s National Poetry Day in the UK today

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You doubtless think of Watson and myself as rough, tough, gruff, thick-skinned, hard-nosed men  of action who would rather eat a slice of quiche than read a poem. In reality we are sensitive, gentle, poetic spirits who take solace in sonnets.

So naturally we are going to take the chance to post a few poems today.

You’re beautiful by Simon Armitage on love and the gap between the sexes: Men are from Yorkshire, women are from Lancashire.

Next, John Cooper Clarke’s Beasley Street: a nightmare vision. Written in the grim days of the 80s. Feels just as true today

And finally, in this “season of mists and mellow fruitfulness”.,John Keats’s magnificent Ode to Autumn. Over-anthologised to death, but they can’t stifle  one of the most beautiful poems in the English language.

The eloquence of Harry Smith

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This very moving speech was given at the recent Labour Party Conference by 91 year-old Harry Smith. A man who grew up in poverty and has experienced the terrible misery and suffering it can bring.

He is a very eloquent speaker and many of the audience were in tears at the end of his speech. The use of language is stupendous.

How easy it is to take the NHS or the Swedish health service for granted!

I try not to. It’s an simple fact for me that my daughter, who was operated on at the age of three days, would not be alive today were it not for the extraordinary skill of the medical staff at Astrid Lindgren’s Children’s Hospital. And the fact that the medical care was provided completely free of charge.

Every school kid should get a chance to see this. Forget all the other nonsense on YouTube that goes viral overnight!

Here’s a sprightly old geezer from Lancashire (Gary’s home county) with something very important to say.