As the destruction and death persists in Gaza, we should be thankful that creativity has not yet been suffocated.  Incredibly, authors continue to write through the bombardment.

According to an email from Ra Page, director of Manchester-based Comma Press, which recently published a collection of short stories from writers in Gaza, “all of the Book of Gaza contributors are writing away like crazy, whilst they have power.” (Eighty percent of households in Gaza currently have only up to four hours of power per day as Israel has badly damaged the Strip’s electricity infrastructure.)

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A year ago this week, Shadow Home Secretary Yvette Cooper gave a speech outlining the Labour Party’s new approach to security policy.  She argued that we need to strike a careful balance between liberty and security, and that security decisions should be based on proportionality and evidence.
I attended that speech, and wrote afterwards about how impressed I was by the principles governing Ms Cooper’s approach.  Labour’s acquiescence last week to the Data Retention and Invesigatory Powers (DRIP) Bill ‘stitch-up‘ has made me feel pretty stupid in my praise.  It seems that at the first real test, Ms Cooper and her Labour colleagues have found it politically expedient to cast those principles aside. Continue reading