Any positive impression she might make here is undone at the end when she blames the housing crisis on 20th century socialism. Ignorance or propaganda? You decide.

Grammar worse than ever this ish. Alison Phillips using "the press" as singular noun just about OK, but David Edmonds clunks "The basic rights and liberties of each and every person matters" and the NS poem switches tenses like a manic bot. Short attention spans much? Still love it though. xx

Such humble beauty and goodness.

I hope we support the concept of innocent until proven guilty? Not convicted yet.

As a long-time NS subscriber I have always assumed Helen Thompson was too clever for me as I found all her writing hard to grasp, but this article is about something I know a lot about, and it is still utterly opaque. Sometimes, Helen, things are actually what they look like.

My answer: Frankly, yes.

Thanks for this. I especially liked the later part about the street musician, because that right there is an exemplar (I'm keen on exemplars) showing a way (not the only only way) to bring something positive to the grief. So your newsletter was exemplary too.