Duffy for Laureate?

"She narrowly missed out to Motion when he was appointed Laureate in 1999 because the then Prime Minister Tony Blair felt her sexuality would prove unacceptable to Middle England." This is a much repeated story but it's highly doubtful whether it's true. For a start, it's difficult to understand see why Blair would think 'middle England' would care more about a homosexual getting an obscure ceremonial role like Poet Laureate than they would about several homosexuals being members of his cabinet. Furthermore, it's highly unlikely that the decision would even have been important enough for Blair to be consulted and the person who would've taken the decision in 1999, Chris Smith, is himself gay. Anyway, the speculation rumbles on. I think Armitage would be more likely to actually put in some work to promote poetry than Duffy would, so I'd support him on that basis.

Hey, Footsie, I wear underpants!

Ah no, Ms Miranda was noted for the bananas on her head and the natural air-conditioning below.

Flowers AND a Bush; was she a horticulturist? Did she turn bare in Autumn? Was she edible? (forget the last question).

"only for ten years though" sounds unnecessarily bitter, and the sexist comment at the start of this thread reminded me of Monty Python's "is this the right room for an argument"... Have you read CA Duffy's book 'Rapture'? It's great. Ladle

Which births an interesting thought... why not have poet and poetess? A bit of healthy competition between the two might inspire and a duet could be wonderful!

I'm with you mistress Jude, there is power in traditions. We live in foolish times which glorify change in the arrogant belief that this somehow releases us from the chains of the past. In fact it only serves to weaken already rusty links with a once glorious history.

I agree with Ladle.

"I just think there were a lot of better choices. And believing in gender specific roles when they are, as Bukh points out, purely ceremonial, isn't sexist." Well, I was describing Poet Laureate as an obscure ceremonial role when compared to the position of cabinet minister - it's not a job and has no specific responsibilities. I think it's important to poets, though. I'm not a massive fan of Duffy's poetry myself but she is one of only two or three living poets in the UK who manage to both sell significant numbers of books to a general readership and be taken seriously by other poets. On that basis she's a reasonable choice and the publicity that her appointment's generated has to be a good thing.

I popped into Waterstones to buy a collection by Duffy, they didn't have it, they had maybe 2 copies of her books. Now this might mean that they had sold out, but probably meant, that they hadn't got their arses in gear and ordered loads as the publicity her appointment got was huge poor show waterstones, I will have to go to Amazon