HW : Moorcock writes

[Jon Browne]

OK OK here's that letter in full:
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Congratuations on a great issue (March 14). NME's getting back to its
best old self again. Let's have some more of it. Makes me proud to be
British. Don't make it easier for Tony Blair than he has it. His future
is already with us in Texas. What he borrows from the US is
paternalistic, almost all  dreadful. People here try to warn him, but
Tony's a natural Yankee. Pious, narrow, self-important, knows what's
best for us. It probably makes him feel wonderfully effective.

I'm living in a self-proclaimed Christian country that daily and
increasingly sees the cruel results of all that happy corporate common
sense. Here, my wife and I are involved with organizations dealing with
immediate daily needs - like starvation. PC is the only public speech
allowed and it makes them even dumber. PC doesn't allow anger. It might
upset someone.

Contray to flashy shows likek ER, hospitals are often disgusting by
British notions, with poor standards. They have no shame. What people
see as the problem of the NHS is, in fact, worse here - you pay a lot to
be condescended to, lied to and frequently misdiagnosed. I can get my
teeth done cheaper in Harley Street than in our local small town. I've
seen people in excruciating agony, turned away from local hospitals
while the doctors are off golfing. As an American doctor said recdently
- a business can't be a service.

Rural poverty, by no means predominately black, is obscene for a
democracy which bases so much of it's rhetoric on human rights. The
welfare figures are constantly doctored a la Mussolini, to show
"positive" gains.

Please don't let it happen in Britain. Tony's leading a fairly subtle
conquest of our most important public institutions and needs some tough,
subtle resistance, as well as direct confrontation, which the rock world
can be very good at. We can still turn the bastards back. Keep singing.
Keep shouting, pards. Stay in the real world.

And thanks for helping an old man feel he's not alone.
Hasta La Vista, Amigos

Mike Moorcock, Bastrop, Texas.

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--
Jon Browne