(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…
(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…
(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…
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…
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…
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…
It is often said of Boris Johnson that his mode of doing politics is a bluff: a bumbling fool act that hides a very nasty strain of Tory politics which people don’t truly see until they have learned to love him. His opposite, Keir Starmer, seems to have the reverse image; a man who constantly and straightforwardly tells us exactly what he…
To: The Labour Party cc: Thangam Debbonaire MP, Keir Starmer MP On the Subject of Rent and COVID-19: Across the United Kingdom, in every single one of your constituencies, there are private renters. These private renters are key workers. They are workers for the NHS, for supermarkets, across all essential services. They are the workers that you wish to centre your post-pandemic…
