The Band Plays On...
Plus digital adventures for children, an award-winning ballet, creative resources and Slung Low's Alan Lane on food justice.
This week my thoughts and feelings came together and I knew I had to leave the NUJ. I redirected my subscription money to Helen Pluckrose’s wonderful Counterweight organisation, which advocates for a ‘liberal’ (small L), secular approach to tackling social justice issues.
I also joined the Free Speech Union. (I wrote an email-only piece about why — sign up to read it.) I don’t want this newsletter to be political, but I’ve been feeling so confused and angry lately, and sometimes it helps to nail your colours to the mast.
Meanwhile, the snow has melted, the crocuses are blooming and we’re about 15m people into the ‘vaccinate everybody’ campaign. So that’s all good. As well as watching Das Rheingeld I caught the splendidly mucky Missy D hosting a working men’s club-style variety show from the Lawrence Batley Theatre. I tried to participate in the BE Festival’s Recall but something went wrong with the booking. The producer was very nice about it and rescheduled the one-to-one for next wee…