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We are in the majority for once
I went to listen to Hastings’ first Stop the War meeting this evening. I learned that… They are kidnapping young Ukrainian men off the streets — working class men mostly – the other kind have ways of avoiding this fate. They are sent to the front, where the average lifespan of a new arrival is…
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White men in white vans
Dear Government, police, MI5 etc, We the good gullible people appeal to you for some help here. We’re trying really hard to do our duty and believe whatever it is we were supposed to believe about what happened at US Fairford yesterday. We’re really happy and relieved that the police caught all five of the…
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Protesting Labour Party Conference protests
I found several newspaper articles and more blogs listing the protests planned for Labour conference, and looking through them ignited a cascade of startling thoughts. Most reporters, mainstream and indie alike, thought there were two important protests – the one about Labour Women’s Conference being only for women (a situation which the Trade Union leadership…
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Three happy discoveries
Spuggies, brickies and the vital spark I haven’t written a blog article for more than a fortnight! Sure, September is always full for me, and this September is more brimming with work than average but there were gaps when, normally, I would have gathered the thoughts, chosen a topic and got typing but this time,…
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I think women may still have a problem or two
I feel as though I’ve spent the last few weeks tumbling down a rocky slope of broken feminism. I’d been reading Hilary Mantel’s graceful memoir, finding out what it feels like for a writer of historical fiction when characters from a past you are researching finally come alive in the cellar of an ancient house,…
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Nudge, point, shout: ‘pervert glasses!’
[NB: Since I published this article it’s been pointed out to me that the manufacturers are presenting these things as an aid to sight-impaired people. That is a huge problem regarding what I’ve suggested below. I’m not going to unpublish because they are being used aggressively, and that’s why people are calling them pervert glasses.…
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Sylvia, not Emmeline
Some thoughts on that far-right bookshop article’s bumpy journey round the world It is certainly a stereotype to say that a meeting of women is an argument, a stereotype that has a lot of evidence to keep it going. To my mind, it’s not really a criticism – I think it’s because women’s gatherings tend…
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Find a loose thread, and pull!
Did you know that the average lifespan of a state is 326 years? What’s even more exciting is that mega-states – hierarchical organisations of control that cover more than one logical, geographic area – only last an average of 155 years. Did you know that the overarching reason for states’ extreme obsession with secrecy is…
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It’s hard work, being a law-abiding citizen
It’s also sometimes hard to believe that’s the best thing to do. From the Kinder Trespass to the anti-genocide ‘granarchists’, it’s hard to see what, if not organised rule-breaking, could win the case for humanity — but let’s give it a go. I certainly believe the thing to do is to apply your best brain…
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Laurence Fox thinks he’s dead
Bit of a laugh. People have been passing this around, as a lovely example of social media hyperbole. I wonder at what point in typing in that rant (we all love a rant, we all do it!) did Fox get lost in his attempted metaphor and forget that it wasn’t him that was dead. But…
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