The Great British Road Test

The Great British Road Test

I’d touched down in London during the hottest UK summer on record. Soon afterwards, waiting for a bus with my guitar, a geezer across the road yelled out, “Have guitar, will travel!” I think he had me pegged. That was the beginning of five weeks on the road, from...
The Great Betrayal: A song of solidarity for Rojava

The Great Betrayal: A song of solidarity for Rojava

Donald Trump’s October withdrawal of US troops from the Rojava region of north-east Syria, home to the Kurdish allies who fought off Isis, and the subsequent Turkish invasion, created an instant humanitarian catastrophe with more than 300,000 internally...
Letter to Barack Obama: It’s time to close Guantanamo

Letter to Barack Obama: It’s time to close Guantanamo

January 11, 2015 marked 13 years since the opening of US detention facility at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba. As part of the international campaign for its closure, Dr. Aloysia Brooks, torture prevention advocate, and songwriter and human rights advocate, Les Thomas, have...
It’s time we ended the stigma of depression

It’s time we ended the stigma of depression

Robin Williams’s death has prompted an avalanche of comment about depression and suicide, most of which has been sympathetic, celebrating what he generously gave the world through his art, but some of it has been blindly judgmental. When depression is ignorantly...