Writer | Poet | Politics, ethics, beliefs | Art | former director @Ekklesia_co_uk | NUJ | @TUG_SNP | Music: @MusicTippett @YesSolidMental
Leith, Scotland
Joined May 2008
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Pinned Tweet
'Transforming Christian-Muslim relations', with Rowan Williams, @monasiddiqui7 & @simonbarrow Videocast now online youtu.be/iyMWv_U4T9Y
Simon Barrow retweeted
In the new film “Fatherland,” Thomas Mann is a standard-bearer for a tradition of liberal humanism that, though in many ways noble, proves completely incapable of fending off the most terrible evils. jacobin.com/2026/10/film-fat…
Simon Barrow retweeted
When the Oxford children's dictionary discarded dozens of nature-words—"dandelion," "fern," "starling"—as irrelevant to children's imagination and replaced them with words like "broadband" and "cut-and-paste," this inspired act of resistance was born: themarginalian.org/2019/06/1…
Simon Barrow retweeted
Defeat of Vučić's Serbian Progressive Party (SNS) is not just a victory for the Left its a remarkable victory for forms of direct, participatory democracy bellacaledonia.org.uk/2026/1…
This evening in Edinburgh in person with guitarist Graeme Stephen, Metropolis, and the human-technology relationship will be special. 7pm, Saturday 31 October. Book here. eventbrite.co.uk/e/with-feel…
Simon Barrow retweeted
This is what solidarity looks like: Two children’s laureates to give royalties to Sally Rooney after her UK sales halted theguardian.com/books/2026/o…
Simon Barrow retweeted
So clear -- why I am an anti-Zionist ⤵️
Position statement.
If Zionism were simply about establishing the right of Jews to live safely wherever they are, including in their ancestral homeland, I would be a Zionist.
But this isn't what Zionism is about. It is, and always has been, about creating a Jewish-majority state in a land where the majority of people are not Jewish. This necessarily means either removing most non-Jews or denying them citizenship. Zionists have done, and are still doing, both.
I believe in the right of ALL people to live safely wherever they are. I oppose every means used to drive people out of their homes and lands: mass murder, ethnic cleansing, systematic violence, denial of citizenship, violation of basic human rights.
Zionism uses all these means to create and maintain its Jewish state.
Therefore I am an anti-Zionist.
Simon Barrow retweeted
A beautifully engaging piece—"being rescued from the provicialism of our own moment" is desperately needed everywhere.
As if some automated sorting has taken place, we no longer hold the capacity to consider where someone else landed. I suspect even wonder itself has been lost.
Simon Barrow retweeted
Actually, no.
Zionism is about 130 years old.
No Jewish text or teaching before that time was about taking over the Land of Israel by force and taking it from other people.
That is not a Jewish value. Our religion never proposed or suggested that.
Zionism, a modern, political ideology, arose as a rebellion against religion.
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My latest piece for @bellacaledonia.
Simon Barrow retweeted
This is exactly right — it’s corporate media, not “mainstream” media. It’s literally not the mainstream.
Amy Goodman: I don't call the corporate media the mainstream media. I think we represent the mainstream.
Those who care about war and peace, the climate catastrophe, LGBTQ issues, racial justice, the immigrant crackdown—are not a fringe minority.
Not even a silent majority, but the silenced majority, silenced by the corporate media, which is why we have to take it back.
Simon Barrow retweeted
My favourite item of the week was Andy Burnham urging people to ‘Be Ready’ for worsening climate threats - the day after opening up Jackdaw, a gas field that will emit over 35 million tonnes of CO2e fiftysixdegreesnorth.substac…
Simon Barrow retweeted
Much US foreign policy seems to manifest as bullying or crawling at present. As war fever is exalted, thus diplomacy withers. "As long as it is assumed that war is always an available option, we will not be forced to imagine any alternative to war."- Stanley Hauerwas
Simon Barrow retweeted
There is an increasingly disingenuous narrative peddled in Scotland about the impacts of granting new oil and gas licenses on North Sea production levels and job security. Amid this, it’s important to look at evidence 🧵
Simon Barrow retweeted
It’s not true that brains are just a series of tiny neurons firing. This is the fundamental AI lie. In reality, biological neurons also do autopoiesis: they maintain themselves alive. There is nothing similar in artificial neurons, which, to be precise, don’t even exist physically.
Simon Barrow retweeted
This is a massive media and political failure. But because broadcasting was never devolved absolutely NOBODY will be held responsible
NEW: The BBC confirms the closure of the BBC Scotland TV channel as it moves to iPlayer only. It will result in job losses and the end of the channel’s bespoke news programme.
@SkyNews
Simon Barrow retweeted
All poetry is intensely personal because the language of every poem is shaped by the poet’s personal voice. In what sense, then, can we speak of public poetry—that is, poetry that speaks to and about our life as members of a public?
--Kenneth L. Woodward
hubs.la/Q04BJjqT0
Simon Barrow retweeted
OPEN LETTER: Sally Rooney is a writer, not a terrorist. Her books must be available to the public. Their withdrawal from sale, on the basis of ill-conceived and draconian anti terror legislation, is an affront to basic principles of free speech and expression so long taken for granted in this country. We categorically reject censorship - whether direct or indirect - and urge the government to change course, amending the legislation which has led us to this point of repressive absurdity.
