John Baker’s Blog

In Rangoon, people say they are more frightened now than when soldiers were shooting on the streets.
“When there were demonstrations and soldiers on the streets, the world was watching,” said a professional woman who watched the marchers from her office.
“But now the soldiers only come at night. They take anyone they can identify from their [...]

What phases are involved in the creation of a text?
I have to confess to being fazed by the phases. Or should that be ‘phased by the phases’? Or ‘phased by the fazes’? You see my problem . . .
It jumbles my mind. I repeat the word ‘phases’ over and over [...]

A debate by the authors of two recent books, each in their way challenging the current parameters of Liberalism, both in the UK and the USA, brought together a crowd of perhaps four hundred people at the Hay Festival.
Stephen Marshall’s book, Wolves in Sheep’s Clothing, examines what he sees as the sell-out of American radicalism. [...]

The Hay Festival is a canvas village. With the rain pelting down all day today (it never paused for a second) the walkways were all sodden, the clientele even wetter.
But I’m already ahead of myself. Last night we went to bed around 1.00 am, the same time as the wedding guests were leaving. We thought [...]