Mike Small

IN a week where Britain seemed to be collapsing under the weight of its own venal chaos, one event among the rest stood out. The revelation that millions of pounds of “the Queen’s private money” is invested in offshore funds in Caribbean tax havens should have caused more outrage than it did. Instead, in the wake of the implosion of Cabinet government it’s almost been forgotten by the end of the week.

IN a year of momentous fakery – from a Brexit campaign built on lies and half-truths to Nigel Farage’s race-hate immigration poster and Donald Trump’s post-truth US Presidential election victory – this week saw new levels of distortion in the British media.

At the height of the wave of jubilant celebratory Yesness that swept Scotland before the referendum anything seemed possible. People were thinking for themselves, challenging everything. The marginalised and disaffected found a new voice to express decades of pent-up frustration. The basic realisation that we don’t get the government we elect, that we don’t run our own country, was charged with other questions about gender class and community, about the military and banks and business. It was joyous chaos. Dissent was king.

Burl Ives paints a picture of Utopia: "Oh the buzzin' of the bees in the cigarette trees, The soda water fountain where the lemonade springs.And the bluebird sings in that Big Rock Candy Mountain."