Steven Friedman

NOW we know that something we are often told by public figures is a fiction. We need to worry that another may be too.

DEMOCRACY cannot improve people’s lives here as long as those who want things to stay the same or get worse are loud and those who want them to get better stay silent.

THERE are many better ways of defending democracy than allowing people to believe that they might be killed by it.

THE latest attack on this country by the US’s rulers is important not because it shows that relations between the two countries must be fixed, but because it confirms that this country is still deeply divided.

THE country’s largest trade union federation is at war with itself over a dispute which probably does not matter. It is also unlikely to discuss the issue which does matter.

MEDIA are best at choosing the side of the powerful, and those with ugly prejudices, when they insist they are not taking a side at all.

FICTIONS can be useful – but only if we remember they are not real.

SOME laws make democracy work better. Others tie its hands. There are no prizes for guessing which this country’s largest political parties and many of its talking heads prefer.

THOSE who believe that whites are better than others treat as equals anyone who agrees that whites are born to rule.

IF the human race survives, it will not be because this country’s politics and public life did anything to help us pull through.