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History and Strategy, Realities 10 hours ago

The Cummings Storm

(Image of Dominic Cummings by Radical Larry (CC BY-SA 4.0)) Due to whatever virtue (loyalty) or character flaw (obsequiousness), I was never radicalised; my politics are those of my mother, only less so – a big state social democrat with a passion for human rights. My household was intrinsically political; we ate our vegetables because not doing so was an offense to…

Column 23rd May 2020

The Rules Don’t Apply To Them

(Image of Dominic Cummings by Radical Larry (CC BY-SA 4.0)) The last two months haven’t been the greatest of my life. Fundamentally, I’ve been one of the lucky ones. My job is safe and I’ve been able to work from home. I’m pretty bored with lockdown but I seem to be coping well enough. And I haven’t been seriously ill (like about…

Domestic Policy, Realities 22nd May 2020

The UK’s Hi-Vis (but Invisible) Workforce

(Picture Credit: https://www.flickr.com/photos/bisgovuk/9191500878) After Boris Johnson’s address last week, my phone was vibrating endlessly with messages: ‘Looks like I’m back at work tomorrow then’ ‘Social distancing is over lads’ ‘Surely we’re not being sent back yet, there’s still thousands of people dying.’ The contradictions on show in these messages are damning. The Coronavirus crisis is by no means at an end, but the…

Domestic Policy, Realities 21st May 2020

A Bad Day For Holyrood

The Scottish Parliament does not always cover itself in glory. Yesterday saw one of its least impressive days to date. To provide some necessary context, yesterday saw the consideration of Stage 3 of the Coronavirus (Scotland) (No.2) Bill – for readers outside of Scotland, Stage 3 is the last step in Holyrood’s legislative process before a bill becomes law. This is the…

Realities 20th May 2020

The Social Review Podcast Episode 46: Apocalypse Communism

Jasper and Morgan sit down with A.M. Gittlitz, author of ‘I Want To Believe: Posadism, UFOs and Apocalypse Communism,’ to discuss the life and afterlife of Posadas, Ufology, and the history of revolutionary socialism and cosmism. Plus, in a new series on life in lockdown, Jasper chats to Kirsten Kurt-Elli about her work running a food bank and a baby bank. Buy…

Culture 17th May 2020

History Repeating? Revisiting Dead of Night

Opting to skip the national Vera Lynn karaoke session, my housemate and I instead chose to mark the 75th anniversary of VE day by watching a film of the period. After some deliberation, we plumped for a picture that shares its diamond anniversary with the end of the war, Ealing Studios’ Dead of Night. This choice may at first appear strange. Dead…