First, an update to my dispatch of six months ago (“The Truth Will Set You Free,” December 2013). Then, you may remember, I discussed the celebrated confrontation on British television between the man I and many others have called the Grand Inquisitor of the BBC, Jeremy Paxman, and the actor, celebrity, comedian, and all-round Renaissance Man, Mr. Russell Brand, who made known on that occasion his commitment to revolutionary politics while refusing utterly to commit to any alternative to the system he sought to destroy. For some reason, this coup de théâtre was widely seen as a great victory by the anti-establishment darling over one of the established media’s most respected figures. Since then, Mr. Paxman has announced his retirement, and it has been suggested that that decision, in spite of the BBC’s wish for him to stay on through next year’s general election, may have something to do with the Brand interview and another with a certain Dizzee Rascal, whose views on the issues of the day may not have seemed worth his inquisition.

As it happens, Mr. Brand has not been standing still either, and his name was again linked to that of Mr. Rascal (as Mr. Paxman insisted on addressing him), né Dylan Mills, when their works, including Mr. Brand’s ghost-written My Booky Wookand Mr. Rascal’s Paxman interview were proposed for inclusion on a new English syllabus for the principal qualifying examination for university entrance. The OCR examinations board—O stands for Oxford, C