Tag archives for Kent Barker - Page 2
Housing Crisis Solved
As official figures show more than 105,000 people in Britain are living in temporary accommodation, KENT BARKER looks to history to find a solution. As a small boy growing up…
Conspiracy of Silence
KENT BARKER considers the Conspiracy Theory: defined as ‘an explanation for an event or situation that asserts the existence of a conspiracy by powerful and sinister groups, often political in…
Muzak WhileYou Work
In the last issue we carried an article decrying background music, arguing that it was an auditory oddity, an insult to the composer and players who created it. Here KENT…
OPINION: Unintended Consequences
KENT BARKER wonders if objecting to small-scale housing developments might prove counterproductive. By almost any criteria, housing in Hastings is in crisis. It’s not just that nearly a thousand people…
Burning Anger
KENT BARKER tries to stay green and keep up with the changing environmental times. Frankly I feel conned. Back in the 1990s I was persuaded to swap my petrol car…
Crown Jewels?
KENT BARKER argues that what we ask of our royal family is completely unreasonable. If there is one positive thing about the hullabaloo surrounding the coronation it’s that it affords…
Coronation Fever
KENT BARKER charts the involvement of a prominent Hastings civic dignitary at the coronation of George II in 1727 Hastings had been one of the original Cinque Ports - probably…
Back to the Future
Kent Barker imagines what a dispatch from halfway through this century might be like. Dateline 2050 Looking back now from the perspective of 27 years after the event, we see…
Beatle Jam
KENT BARKER, a self-confessed incompetent Ukulele player, profiles one of the bands that will be bringing their four-stringed instruments to Hastings for Beatles Day. The BIG Ukulele Jam are usually…
Is the Theatre Really Dead?
Kent Barker, HIP’s Arts Editor, asks how theatre provision in Hastings compares with some of the other arts. We are forever hearing what a thriving artistic environment Hastings is. Yes,…
SATIRE: Nightmare before Christmas
By Kent Barker I had the strangest dream. It seemed I had walked into the chamber of the House of Lords in the Palace of Westminster. And there they all…
Regrets – I’ve had a few
Kent Barker says a documentary about the venerable and venerated Hastings blues guitarist Roger Hubbard, reveals a musician ruefully aware of roads not taken during his career. In my rather…
Expectation Images
Kent Barker says JJ Waller’s latest collection ably demonstrates his fascination, respect and affection for our town. Henri Cartier-Bresson is considered by many to be the photographer’s photographer. His candid,…
Black History Month
Race or Racist Card? A St Leonards exhibition prompted Kent Barker to consider what progress race relations have made in Britain over the past half century. There have been, please…
REVIEW: Let me tell You ‘bout the Manfreds
By Kent Barker The replacement of Paul Jones by Mike d’Abo as Manfred Mann’s lead singer in 1966 was, for many British teenyboppers, as cataclysmic an event as Dylan going…
No Change Sea Change
By Kent Barker Plans to complete – or even start work on completing – the Queensway Gateway to the A21 appear to have been put indefinitely on hold. Six years…
M&S – the Myanmar Connection
By Kent Barker Hastings Marks and Spencer is flouting corporate guidelines and continuing to sell clothing made under the appallingly repressive military dictatorship in ; According to the United Nations,…
Bob in Bexhill
As the De La Warr Pavilion celebrates the 50th anniversary of Bob Marley’s appearance there, Kent Barker looks at the events in 1972 that led up to the ; Bob…
Power From the People
Kent Barker considers a series of simple measures that could be taken to help us achieve carbon neutrality – and asks why the government appears to be not just ignoring…
The Cost of Energy Security
Kent Barker considers the government’s dilemma in trying to achieve energy security, minimise fuel poverty, and meet its climate change targets. I don’t know if you’ve noticed but energy prices…
THEATRE REVIEW
A Hippie Macbeth By Kent Barker Since Stanislavski, actors preparing a role seek to uncover motivation. And while I hardly dare question the Bard, I wonder if some of his…
The Long Road to Sustainability
On a recent road trip to Scotland, Kent Barker and Susan McFie were on the lookout for a changing environmental landscape and to see if the UK government’s carbon neutral…
Right to Roam – A modest proposal
By Kent Barker For ramblers and walkers the name Kinder Scout has a deep reverence. Hundreds gathered at this plateau in the Derbyshire Peak District in April 1932 for an…
A Plague on Their Theatres
Kent Barker finds that the current vicissitudes of the theatre in Britain under Covid has parallels with the Elizabethan stage in Shakespeare’s time. “Actors have always had to juggle a…
Government Greenwash
Kent Barker argues our environment and our health are being sacrificed as we move out of lockdown and out of the EU. Everyone seems to agree on one thing: virtually…
Waiting for Gareth
Hitler Pizzeria reviewed by Kent Barker The problem with Samuel Becket’s ‘Waiting for Godot’ is that you know from the outset your wait will be fruitless because the programme cast-list…
Hastings Fashion Show Goes National
Kent Barker Hastings’ own home-grown fashion show – Front Row - has just been accorded national recognition and an additional showing at a prestigious London location. This Saturday, 26th November,…
Rocklands “Bunker” Appeal Won and Lost
Kent Barker Hastings Borough Council may have partially won a planning appeal but it appears to have lost the main battle over the controversial ‘bunker’ development at Rocklands caravan centre…