Thoughtland

PK column in The National: Rise of right has left us questioning what it means to be a white male

By Pat Kane. First published on NOVEMBER 26TH, 2016

WHITE, middle-aged, middle-class male. That’s what I am, undeniably. I have long thought of myself as a supporter of women’s rights, of the rights of sexual and ethnic minorities. Yet here I am, the empirical fact of me, appearing in analysis after analysis as the foundation of a poisonous turn in Euro-American public life.

What should I do? What can I do?

The answers to those questions reverberate up and down my own timeline, and across the field of society before us. And before I assume any right as a pundit to suggest anyone else’s course of action or behaviour, I should examine my own path.

PK column in The National: Is genealogy the anchor we crave in a troubled world?

By Pat Kane. First published on NOVEMBER 19TH, 2016

‘WHO do you think you are?” No, don’t worry – this isn’t an angry quote from a Channel Four interview conducted in the heart of Trumpland (or for that matter, Leavetown).

Readers of the Radio Times will recognise it as this week’s front cover headline, heralding the return of the BBC’s successful family history show. Inside, we discover Eastenders’ Danny Dyer is a distant relative of William the Conquerer, Edward III and Oliver Cromwell. Well, thanks for that.