Amateurism has its place in government, in journalism and also on the tennis court, but lack of expertise means politicians routinely promise far more than they achieve. Gavin Esler Read Quote
In Britain, politicians who openly discuss their spirituality are about as welcome as Jehovah’ s Witnesses on the doorstep, and the British associate the mixture of politics and religion as a heady cocktail best reserved for the mass irrationality of Northern Ireland, Iran, Kashmir, and the Middle East. Gavin Esler Read Quote
I have a long connection with Kent and Canterbury and I hope to help other young men and women to achieve their ambitions through a wonderful university experience. Gavin Esler Read Quote
From the moment he took the oath of office in 1993 until he left the White House in 2001, Bill Clinton was a paradox in power. He presided over the United States prosperous and at peace – but never at peace with itself. Gavin Esler Read Quote
Ian Anderson of Jethro Tull is now a good friend, and the thing that strikes you about him is that he’s all about details. Gavin Esler Read Quote
I remember politicians in Northern Ireland were sometimes called ‘verbal incendiarists,’ as they didn’t actually do anything but they said certain things. So when you hear certain politicians using nasty language, that colours our lives. It makes some other people think it’s OK to racially abuse people. Gavin Esler Read Quote
If we have to put music into baskets, then the progressive rock bands I fell in love with as a teenager made sounds that shaded into jazz, folk, metal, and in the case of the wonderful (and sadly missed) Jon Lord, modern classical music. Gavin Esler Read Quote
My alphabet book at Duddingston Primary, Edinburgh, began traditionally with ‘a is for apple,’ but when it came to ‘g,’ it was ‘g is for gas globe.’ This was in the late Fifties; there hadn’t been gas globes for decades. The textbook must have been 30 or 40 years old! Gavin Esler Read Quote
Ronald Reagan offered us an international vision divided between the free world and the evil empire. Even if this was a cartoonish view, it helped us make sense of everything from Star Wars to industrial policy. Gavin Esler Read Quote
It’s perhaps easier to say what prog rock isn’t than what it is: it’s not three-minute pop songs, it’s not straightforward rock, metal, blues or jazz, but can have elements of all them and more. It’s a form that is on the boundaries of many different forms, that is open to all sorts of influences. Gavin Esler Read Quote
