Category: media
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On resisting “bubble thinking”

From Gary Lineker through Brexit to women’s rights via Timothy Snyder ***Long read*** Let’s go back in time and give some attention to how we got here, and how we might go about getting to a better place. This is a discussion about a YouTube clip from Channel Four, of Krishnan Guru-Murthy talking to Timothy…
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Oh alright, I’ll talk about toilets again

For the last five years, I have regularly had people throw that one about “are you going to look up people’s skirts in the loos” at me, and I have regularly had people say to me, “don’t mixed sex toilets solve the problem”. I generally answered – truthfully, that the women’s sex based rights campaign…
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The failed ideology of “keep the change”

Picture this: a hard-pressed mum, busy trying to manage the budget for the family, gives her kid a £50 note and says “go buy a carton of milk and keep the change.” The kid comes back with the milk, and two carrier bags stuffed with £47.50worth of sweets, biscuits and cakes and some friends, then…
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Has anything changed?

This last week in parliament has been pretty awful and, by coincidence, while the MPs were playing with helmets etc, I was helping some students prepare for AQA GCSEs which, among other things, involve developing opinions about The Charge of the Light Brigade. It’s not far off 200 years ago now, but — well, the…
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What are governments for?

We had a solidarity gathering at Hastings Station – for – well, do you remember them? “They” are our essential workers. “They” are, essentially, us. But, since more and more trade unions have announced industrial action due to the neglect and underpayment of essential workers, the newspapers and our government have been trying to tell…
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On being disinformed

***Long read*** For most of the last decade, despite my determination to live effectively in the real world, I have been repeatedly drawn into apparently intractable battles of words. It’s not just me, either. I’ve lost count of the number of people who’ve told me they’ve given up on politics entirely because “it’s all so…
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A thank you and an urgent hallooo!

Dear all, This is my periodic thank you to all who read my blog, and especially to those who help out by liking, sharing and/or donating to keep the blog going. As ever, I would like to spread that thank you, to cover all those who write outside the mainstream media – you know why…
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Words are important (an impolite commentary)

The man formerly known as Prince Charles has just become our liege-lord, apparently. I resorted to my dictionary. “liege” describes the relationships between a “feudal superior” and a “vassal”. A “vassal” (that’s you) is a holder of land “on condition of homage or allegiance” or a “person in a subordinate position”. So, peasant – have…
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We girls were double-divided

There’s a puzzling range of controversies raging over ‘entertainment’ and ‘the arts’. Social justice warriors are busy finding items – books, films, statues, to condemn for racism, and whilst libraries obediently bury offending books, the women’s movement battles over misogynistic and mind-bending traditions such as nightclub drag queens crossing yet more boundaries to present as…
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Clever, awkward and what was it again…?

Five years ago, I wrote a blog post called If I’m so clever… I didn’t say exactly what it was about, but if you’re interested in the different ways people think and work, do please take a look. I think you’ll be able to work it out… ( So sorry we didn’t manage to win…