Bryan Murphy's Blog - Posts Tagged "police"
Mess of pottage
I write with a heavy heart. The destruction has begun. The destruction of an emblematic piece of the city of Turin's rich heritage of industrial architecture. Two former factories in the working-class district called San Paolo were used and protected by the City Council until last summer. Then, strapped for cash, it decided to sell off the land to property developers, who, today, moved in and began the destruction, protected by vanloads of police in riot gear and equally burly non-locals in civilian clothing. For my sins, I have a grandstand view.
Angels versus Virgins
My latest short e-book is an antidote to fundamentalism, as well as a story about soccer, society and growing up. http://amzn.to/1vaWwap For young adults and others interested in the future.
Introduction to Freemasons
We have a splendid post on Freemasonry over on the Write Room Blog, http://www.thewriteroomblog.com/?p=2637, in which Canadian author Clayton Bye makes it clear that in North America, the Freemasons are good guys.
Over here in Europe, it is not always so evident. In the UK, Freemasons are often seen as a bit of a joke – “grown men prancing around in fancy dress” – although there are concerns about the prevalence among them of high-ranking police officers, who might form bonds inside the lodge with dodgy businessmen. Italy has had real problems with a lodge called P2 that tried to subvert its fragile democracy. That, however, was a secret rogue lodge, run more like a personal fiefdom by its main man. In stark contrast was the role played by Freemasonry during the fascist days in Portugal: when the dictatorship finally fell, the leader of the new centre-right political party (PPD) stated bluntly that “the Freemasons saved my life” from the former régime.
I was very interested by Clayton’s statement Freemasons have to profess belief in a God, though it does not matter which one. In the e-book I have just released, “Angels versus Virgins”, http://amzn.to/1vaWwap, that precise demand is the basis for the new order established in a future Britain following a religious revival. I didn’t get the idea from the Freemasons, nor from Alcoholics Anonymous, but from our former Prime Minister, Tony Blair, who seemed to get hooked on it after taking our country into a war that has yet to end.
If you have any experience of Freemasons or Freemasonry, do hop over to the Write Room Blog and join the discussion.
Over here in Europe, it is not always so evident. In the UK, Freemasons are often seen as a bit of a joke – “grown men prancing around in fancy dress” – although there are concerns about the prevalence among them of high-ranking police officers, who might form bonds inside the lodge with dodgy businessmen. Italy has had real problems with a lodge called P2 that tried to subvert its fragile democracy. That, however, was a secret rogue lodge, run more like a personal fiefdom by its main man. In stark contrast was the role played by Freemasonry during the fascist days in Portugal: when the dictatorship finally fell, the leader of the new centre-right political party (PPD) stated bluntly that “the Freemasons saved my life” from the former régime.
I was very interested by Clayton’s statement Freemasons have to profess belief in a God, though it does not matter which one. In the e-book I have just released, “Angels versus Virgins”, http://amzn.to/1vaWwap, that precise demand is the basis for the new order established in a future Britain following a religious revival. I didn’t get the idea from the Freemasons, nor from Alcoholics Anonymous, but from our former Prime Minister, Tony Blair, who seemed to get hooked on it after taking our country into a war that has yet to end.
If you have any experience of Freemasons or Freemasonry, do hop over to the Write Room Blog and join the discussion.
The city and the city
Dead Simple
In Franc Roddam's 1979 film “Quadrophenia”, the gang of Mods coming down to Brighton for a weekend of violence stop their scooters on the South Downs when the coast and a shimmering town come into view and say, reverentially, “That's Brighton!”.
In reality, it was not louche, dirty, pulsating Brighton but the sedate retirement town of Eastbourne. Nevertheless, watching the film in Portugal, the scene was enough set off pangs of nostalgia and longing. Forty years later, back in Portugal, I'm still drawn to anything set in Brighton, which is what led me to Peter James's novel "Dead Simple". It is replete with evocative place-names, though it is a fantasy Brighton, in which a hard rain falls as it might in a post-apocalyptic Seattle, and all the police are jolly good lads and lasses, whereas we used to say that the city had “the best police force money could buy”, and woo works. This last is used by the author to set the story straight. Convenient car crashes also play a role. The characters are static and lacking in subtlety, unlike the real city's denizens, who give the place its true flavour.
In Franc Roddam's 1979 film “Quadrophenia”, the gang of Mods coming down to Brighton for a weekend of violence stop their scooters on the South Downs when the coast and a shimmering town come into view and say, reverentially, “That's Brighton!”.
In reality, it was not louche, dirty, pulsating Brighton but the sedate retirement town of Eastbourne. Nevertheless, watching the film in Portugal, the scene was enough set off pangs of nostalgia and longing. Forty years later, back in Portugal, I'm still drawn to anything set in Brighton, which is what led me to Peter James's novel "Dead Simple". It is replete with evocative place-names, though it is a fantasy Brighton, in which a hard rain falls as it might in a post-apocalyptic Seattle, and all the police are jolly good lads and lasses, whereas we used to say that the city had “the best police force money could buy”, and woo works. This last is used by the author to set the story straight. Convenient car crashes also play a role. The characters are static and lacking in subtlety, unlike the real city's denizens, who give the place its true flavour.
