Many
Illuminate - they write articulately, cleverly, are well informed and insightful, but
they often have a limited view or write mostly about their own agenda, be it business, political agendas and more.
Bell wrote
with a rare clarity – and he viewed the broad sweep and the bigger view – while
he also dug deep into the issues with an eye for the unheard details or clever
lateral thinking.
And I miss
his articles.
I imagine after the Hillsborough news recently in May and the Justice for the 96, that the dead and the football fans are now free of blame - that Bell would have written articulately, clearly and openly about the rottenness at the heart of many UK institutions. The Yorkshire police are an Old Boys network – for the past centuries the Irish have been seen as second class citizens.
Liverpool
has strong Irish connections from its trade to Ireland and not long ago Irish
nationals were locked up from no reason. It was dark days when Ireland had to fight
so hard to run its own affairs. Why, when Home Rule was put forward before the
war? His grandfather's brother James Connolly who was part of the Easter rising.
Someone
posted on Twitter – are any of us safe – if the truth can be hidden for 27
years!’
Many
British commentators talk of the corruption and dictators across the world – as
if they believe in the UK that we are a Beacon of democracy and openess! They truly
delude themselves!
I wonder
what he would make of the 2016 Scottish parliament Elections and the demise of
Labour. What would he say? He was a strong supporter of Scottish independence and
he viewed that, as I do, as the only way forward for Scotland. We’ll see. It is
time for the SNP to take more charge of the Constitution arguments and ask – what
do the Conservatives, Lib Dems or Labour stand for. Tories say they are for the
Union – but what kind of union exactly?
People are spoon-fed
media lies from the hard right - and
they often fool themselves and believe it.
Then there’s
the Chilcot Report due for release
July only 2,000 days after the inquiry finished – will this be another
whitewash?
Democracy
is only achieved with a free press and most of the UK press is now foreign
owned and lacks credibility - it is manipulated, sensational, misleading, empty
rhetoric, with mainly meaningless innuendo or gossip. I would guess London
journalists fear for their careers and have to toe the broadsheet lines.
Many years
back I kept one of Bells articles on Sense of Place. I cut out articles tto
keep that resonate and inspire for future reference. Bell was quite simply not
only a great British writer, but one of the best worldwide. He is sadly missed
in the world of words.
They say
the pen is mightier than the sword and in his case this was utterly the truth .Yeats,
Burns prove this.
There are
very few voices of Truth – and Bell was one.
(Bell was an award-winning columnist for the Scotsman and The Herald)
Time out of Mind at EIBF 2014 BLOG - http://www.musicfootnotes.com/ian-bell-time-out-of-mind
(Bell was an award-winning columnist for the Scotsman and The Herald)
Time out of Mind at EIBF 2014 BLOG - http://www.musicfootnotes.com/ian-bell-time-out-of-mind
