"As a participant at last month's 'Romance Revisited' conference held at Lancaster University I found Claire Sanders's report of that event somewhat disappointing. Cutting a clean swathe through the very diversity of issues raised at the conference, the article focuses on 'heterosexual romantic love', that most commonplace site of definition of 'romance' and why women, feminism notwithstanding, 'yearn for it'.

"And, indeed, several papers at the conference did grapple with this mystifying issue. But others which discussed the cultural and social invisibility of mixed-race couples, for example, or the media construction of the 'general public' as political agents in the Di-and-Charles romance, or the 'romancing'/commodification of British pasts through heritage museums, or the question of what 'other' is desired by current developments in gene mapping all questioned that one definition of romance which Sanders's article makes the be-all and end-all of the term. All I can say is: it was a lot more interesting than that!"

Gabriele Griffin, (Women's Studies, Nene College, Northampton), "Letter", The Times Higher Education Supplement, 23rd April 1993, p. 15.

"If the Cuban revolution had not occurred it would have been necessary to invent it - to elaborate a myth of a revolution that offered an alternative to a world where the gap between North and South is widening by the hour, one that had an acceptable scale of priorities eradicating inequalities of wealth, and of illiteracy, extending free health care to all its citizens, and restoring national pride, through imaginative cultural programmes.

"Whatever its faults, hover unrealistic its triumphalist rhetoric, however disillusioning the frustration of early hopes, however misguided its embrace of communism, and its treatment of dissi- dents, however contradictory its foreign policy that includes an aid programme putting many richer powers to shame, the revolution deserves better than to become a hunting ground for the predators of the 'New International Order'".

Alistair Hennessy, "Uncle Sam and The Man in Havana", Times Literary Supplement, 2nd July 1993, p. 19.

"In the economists' dream world of perfect competition and perfect information, where everyone is transparent to everyone else, there is no room for deception and so no role for negotiation: an exchange is completed instantly, or not at all. That piece of make-believe - as unrealistic a condition as any wild-eyed utopian thinker has ever dreamed up - is essential to all economists' technical proofs of the efficiency of the free market. It is as far away from the functioning of real markets as it possible to imagine, which may say something about economists' ability to tell the truth.

Alasdair Palmer, "Carry on Lying", The Spectator, 11th September 1993, p. 20.

"I was not surprised to see John Horam, the ex-Labour Minister and Social Democrat MP, extolling the virtues of the South Korean economy. In his new role as a Tory MP we should expect Mr Horam to be praising any country which exploits its workforce in the name of profit.

"Mr Horam should look north to the achievements of People's Korea. Under this socialist regime co-operation rather than competition is the key to success."

John Pateman, Orpington Labour Party, in a recent letter in a local paper. (I do welcome submissions for this column from our readers, but please do include the full source and date - CRT.)

"Liberals are extremely 'specie-ist'- They draw an unquestionable line between humans and animals, and they cannot bring themselves to see that our human species fits into a web of life and a food chain which, if tampered with, lead to disastrous consequences. Of course, to be aware of this important fact they would have to acknowledge Nature as being a real and unavoidable force to be reckoned with. That is one thing a liberal dare not accept. He accepts that Nature exists, but he is convinced that Man should be master of it and not the other way round.... Tolerance towards the rampages of big business is also a characteristic of the liberal. Very little is done to stop the environment being polluted. The 'developing' countries all want motor cars and refrigerators and all the other modern conveniences which cause so much pollution in the developed countries. The liberals insist that we cannot object to other peoples enjoying the comforts which we take for granted, and so we cannot forbid them using ozone-depleting gasses, etc. People must always come first in their transient philosophy. This is a sacred rule which can never be violated.

"So the whole world turns to turmoil. The future of our planet and every living creature on it is in jeopardy. There is warfare, misery and great suffering. Liberalism is to blame for most of it."

Linda Miller, "How Liberalism is the Enemy of Progress", Spearhead, No. 296, October 1993, p. 10.

"The totalitarian model insisted, and still insists, on seeing the Soviet Union as an ideology in power, whereas the less pretentious and more revealing work of plain historians has shown that from the time of Stalin, if not before, the country was being run on an ad-hoc basis that conformed to the demands of a despotic autocracy with no interest in Marxist ideology.... the quasi-fascistic characteristics of Leninism do not vitiate the ideas of Marxism, communism or socialism."

John Murray (Lecturer in Russian Studies, Trinity College, Dublin), "An Empire and Its Attendants", Times Higher Education Supplement, 8th October 1993, p. 29.

"[R]acist America has a habit of turning the existence of even the most privileged and lauded black person into a nightmare.... in the heart of the capitalist beast there is no dream, only a nightmare."

Hassan Mahamdallie, "Destroyed by Those Who Made Him?", Socialist Worker, 11th September 1993, p. 11.

"The election of Derek Beackon [sic] as a Councillor on the Isle of dogs [sic] caused shocked outrage across the Establishment. Beackon is a dedicated Nazi occultist. He graduated to the British Nationalist Party after serving his apprenticeship in the British Movement. Beackon is an adept of Enochian magic. Devised in the sixteenth century by John Dee, it was this magical system which laid the basis for the conjuring up of the British Empire. Like every other form of nationalism, British nationalism is a psychic elemental which drains energy from living people in order to maintain itself as sickly caricature of life.

"From his home at Mallon House, Carr Street, Limehouse, Beackon

was able to tap into the powerful leyline running through his front room. This leyline is readily visible from the Observatory at Greenwich....

"This leyline has been in the hands of the Establishment for years. They used the Greenwich section for astrological purposes....

"Many people believe that Greenwich is in fact the Omphalos - or spiritual centre - of the British Empire. However those with a deeper understanding of Feng Shui, the ancient Chinese art of land divination, will recognise that the actual Omphalos must be on the Isle of Dogs, protected by water on all sides.... This is the Omphalos, the spiritual centre, where the magus John Dee conjured up the British Empire in the presence of Christopher Marlowe, four hundred years ago this year. However, using the leyline for such evil purposes necessitated the sacrifice of a human life. A psychic attack on Christopher Marlowe and his friends in [sic] Deptford pub lead to a brawl in which the famous playwright died.

"In more recent years the Canary Wharf tower was built very care- fully. It is in fact a column supporting a pyramid at the top. This pyramid serves to represent a much larger pyramid which would be formed if the lines at each corner were stretched down to ground level. This greater 'virtual' pyramid lies with its South West corner upon the leyline. The use of such street names as Cabot and Chancellor, and Churchill clearly show the intention to make Canary Wharf a powerful totem to resist the revival of German imperialism. Wren's name is used in deference to the architect who organised the building of the Naval College, and supervised the erection of St. Anne's tower as a U-Wave conductor. The building of Canary Wharf involved several human sacrifices, passed off as 'accidents'.

"However the British establishment did not think that the pro- German British Nationalist Party would challenge them on this power line. But the BNP knew what price they would have to pay. Having conducted his obscene rituals to gain electoral success. Beackon fled his home fearing the negative Karma which would result. The BNP cynically pretended that he was in hiding from some unspecified anti-racists. Richard Edmonds, another cowardly BNP occultist was so worried he arranged for some BNP moles in the police to keep him out of harm's way locked up in a cell. However the karmic law is remorseless. Having used the power of the leyline, a human life had to be sacrificed.

"As the principal culprits had protected themselves from psychic attack, another top Nazi occultist would be the victim. It was Ian Stuart, lead singer of the cult band Skrewdriver. The official story is that the car he was travelling [sic] crashed, and that the two passengers in the back escaped before the car became a ball of fire. However the truth is that the driver succumbed to demonic possession before spontaneously bursting into flames.

"The BNP may feel safe now that their demonic master has sated its hunger. But the BNP are mere amateurs at occultism when compared to the top experts who run the British Establishment. The more they proceed with their occult nightmare of ritualistic sadism, they more they become victims of masonic mind control.

"The British Establishment is now using them to conduct an experi- ment on the people of the Isle of Dogs. Using the Island as crucible of social engineering, they want to test what role race riots can be used to prop up the decadent masonic system. If the experiment goes wrong, the island can be sealed off and the inhabitants isolated. If it succeeds, the state will have a new weapon in its arsenal of terror."

Anon., Nazi Occultists Seize Omphalos, London Psychogeographical Association, London, 1993, pp. 1-2.