A DIFFERENT sort of column this week.

Words are my currency and language is important. If words are misused, weaponised or euphemised, they start to lose their meaning and therefore their power — and when that happens we are all in trouble. I want to give you very different examples of this in verse.  

Firstly: as an anti-fascist and anti-racist it breaks my heart to see the incredibly powerful word “anti-semitic” thrown around like confetti by the far-right government of Israel. In my opinion they are devaluing the term in a way which insults the memory of the Holocaust victims and turns the word for a heinous and unspeakable crime into a general insult applied to anyone who criticises them. This is tragic and very dangerous. Anti-semitism is very specific. 

DICTIONARY DEFINITION 

Our language must have meaning 
to be any use at all —
If you take away that meaning 
then the truth goes to the wall.
If you’re antisemitic, 
it means you hate all Jews. 
Yes, every single one of them, 
not just those in the news. 
You loathe them for existing, 
not for what they do or say.
The left wing ones, the right wing ones, 
at work or rest or play. 
It’s not about their actions, 
their thoughts, their aspirations.
This really should be made quite clear 
at the United Nations.

And on a completely different tack, the concept of assisted dying has been the subject of much debate recently, inside and outside the Houses of Parliament. Here I contrast the absolutely justified soul searching applied to the introduction of the measure as usually understood, with the blithe acceptance of its literal meaning throughout human history in the context of that well known epithet: ‘War is an continuation of politics by other means.

ASSISTED DYING

Assisted dying is an abomination
a desecration of the human spirit
an insult to Life itself 
No civilised society should tolerate it 
and measures should be put in place 
to ensure those who advocate it 
in their media 
and profit from it 
in their factories 
are removed from circulation 
and humanely restrained 
in specialist “gamer” facilities 
where they can indulge their fantasies 
in endless video battles 
without harm to wider society. 

I am of course 
not talking about those who wish 
to end their own lives
at the time of their own choosing 
in dignity and peace  
surrounded by those they love —
with proper safeguards 
that should be their sovereign choice — 
but about those who wish
to end others’ lives 
way before their time 
in the terror of war
or the war of terror
alone and defenceless 
surrounded by those they fear
and screaming for their mothers 
in the name of profit, or country, 
or prophet, or god. 

On to happier things. Yesterday I was honoured to be invited to Durham (alongside wonderful young singer-songwriter Jess Silk) to be part of the entertainment at the pre-Gala gig organised by Durham NEU. Today I shall be taking part in the Durham Miners’ Gala itself, a wonderful celebration of working-class history and culture at its best.

And I shall be honouring the memory of Durham Miners’ Association president Davey Hopper, who invited me to be the after-dinner speaker at a pre-Gala event some years ago and, most memorably, to be the entertainment at the party he held at Easington colliery club on the day of Thatcher’s funeral. That was some day! 

I’ll also be thinking of Barry Chambers, a DMA legend in his own right, as I share a few pints with his son Ronnie, whom I’ve known for many years. The event is the best possible riposte to Reform, who have sadly taken Durham County Council with their billionaire-sponsored division and lies, profiting from the Labour leadership’s abject refusal to govern in the interests of the people who brought the party into being.

Horrendous times. But, as the wonderful Muddy Summers and the Dirty Field Whores put it:

“Yeah yeah it’s all shit
But some of us are trying to plant roses in it”

And we’re not going anywhere.

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