Platon's Republic

- there is a place - at the centre of things - a place where the beautiful can be seen with the ugly, where the power shakers and makers entertain the everyman, where the bombastic praise the meek, where the rich do lunch with the poor, where the thinkers carry the same weight as the doers, where the left sit with the right and the right hold hands with the wrong - this is a land of futility and gravitas, confined by no borders and unbound by hierarchy - I have been there, and there is all around us - and so, I am honoured to declare the birth of a new republic, my republic - Platon's Republic - it is a humbling experience to meet face to face with its citizens and ambassadors...