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Hume, Mick
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4 articles of this author have been cited in the European Press Review so far.
Pre-emptive grovelling
Random House publishers have decided not to publish the novel "Jewel of Medina" about the six-year-old wife of the prophet Muhammad, on the grounds that it "might be offensive to some in the Muslim community". Columnist Mike Hume voices his disgruntlement in The Times: "It looks like another example of a quiet wave of self-censorship and cultural cowardice sweeping Western art circles. Two years ago, when the Deutsche opera in Berlin scrapped a production of Mozart's Idomeneo for fear that it might offend some Muslims, I described it as 'pre-emptive grovelling'. This now appears to be the modus operandi of the transatlantic arts elites. ... The threat to freedom here does not come from a few Islamic radicals, but from the invertebrate liberals of the cultural establishment who have so lost faith in themselves that they will surrender their freedoms before anybody starts a fight. ... Of course, such pre-emptive grovelling only encourages any zealot with a blog to demand even more censorship. ... Pre-emptive grovelling, encouraged from the top down by our illiberal authorities, is bad for the arts and for society. The arts can only flourish in a climate of cultural anarchy rather than compulsion and conformity."
» full article (external link, English)
More from the press review on the subject » Literature, » Publishing houses, » Religion, » Global
British TV sermons the masses on how to enjoy Christmas
Columnist Mick Hume complains about the predominantly nostalgic choice of television repeats British viewers are given at Christmas time. "This is not just retro-tainment. It is sentimental propaganda, broadcast by those so paranoid about the modern masses sinking into a bear pit that they must lecture us about the warm old ways. Not content with telling us how to behave the rest of the year, these holly prigs now want to instruct us how to enjoy Christmas with families and friends. So Christmas television has become a re-education programme about how wonderful and unifying was the family TV of Christmas past. ... Amid the week's dull comedies, light relief from Her Majesty telling us [in her annual Christmas speech], with no hint of irony, to remember those 'cut orrff' from normal society. I suppose after 50 years she has perfected her comedy deadpan."
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More from the press review on the subject » Audiovisual Media, » United Kingdom
Thou shalt recycle
Columnist Mick Hume takes a humorous look at the mandatory recycling programs being introduced in London. "Free societies rarely make things compulsory, preferring to rule out what we may not do rather than dictate what we must. Even the ten commandments that God allegedly handed down to Moses contained eight Thou Shalt Nots and just two compulsory Thou Shalts. ... I object to such compulsion because it trashes freedom of choice and wastes my most precious resource - time. ... Most rubbish we do produce at home, such as food waste, is not a 'precious resource' – that's why we chuck it out in the first place. No, the real aim of domestic recycling has long had more to do with changing our behaviour than affecting climate change. It is about sorting people into the clean-living who recycle, and the trash who do not."
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More from the press review on the subject » Environmental Policy, » United Kingdom
Galloway takes political message to reality TV
Columnist Mike Hume says the decision by British MP George Galloway to spend 23 days living in the 'Celebrity Big Brother' house, watched by millions of television viewers, "is more celebrity politics on the banal scale of reality TV, where you try to connect with the audience by advertising your ordinariness or showing your feelings. The aim is to counter the image problem of our discredited political class. The result is to expose the empty (show) business that politics has become. Galloway has been criticised for hanging out in the Celebrity Big Brother house rather than the House of Commons. But he is only following the trail blazed by Blair. (...) And while the self-styled leader of the anti-war movement seeks status by rubbing shoulders in the CBB house, the leader of the war party does the same by inviting bigger celebrities to his house".
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More from the press review on the subject » Domestic Policy, » United Kingdom
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