grief

2609 days ago

Fake grief for Las Vegas, my non grief but intense sadness as Tom Petty dies

A nation is grieving, said more or less everybody after the awful events in Las Vegas. Really? In the old days one grieved for the loss of someone you knew or were related to, someone you had cared about before they headed off to a better place. It was part of the process of coping with the absence of someone who had been part of your life but was now just not there anymore.

2717 days ago

The Death of Diana & #GrenfellTower - the same "popular anger", appropriated grief, media persecution and rewriting of history

As the Queen wandered among the victims of the Grenfell Tower tragedy yesterday I could not help wonder at what a really very good human being she is. I write as a diehard republican but I cannot help but but admire Elizabeth Windsor. And everyone else seems to do so too. My mind then went back a couple of decades to the death of Diana, Princess of Wales. How differently the Queen was viewed - for a few days at least - back then but how the mood was so similar.