Category: Politics
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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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A Radical Review
What I learned from Issue Eight – ‘the disputes edition’ – of The Radical Notion and from reading Maya Forstater’s critique of it Click here for a TRN download link. Click here to buy a paper copy of TRN. Just in case you’re thinking about last summer and saying… Oh, no, please, no! …this, after…
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The Jaguar Smile
This is a review of The Jaguar Smile by Salman Rushdie. I read it in 2023 because… From time to time, I like revisiting ‘old’ books, because until I was involved in the book trade, I didn’t know how casually ‘back list’ books are treated, nor how easily they can drop off into the ‘not…
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Nicola Sturgeon, Labour & Gender Identity Ideology
***Guest post by Ian McNee*** Nicola Sturgeon is not a stupid politician. Arrogant? Maybe. Another centrist oiling the wheels of capitalism (albeit with tartan stripes)? Definitely. And while there is almost certainly some truth in her claim that holding high public office has taken its toll on her, she could see that the fallout from…
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No such thing as “politically homeless” on this woman’s agenda
Gill Knight has been a political activist since she retired some 18 years ago, and the chaos that has been UK party politics in recent years has not had the power to change that at all. She was actively involved in anti-austerity, anti-benefit sanctions and housing campaigns with Unite Community before the Labour Party started…
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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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It is a lie…
It is a lie when they tell us we can’t afford our National Health Service any more. The money they are pouring into the pockets of private profiteers, to make up the lack their cuts created is enough to pay our NHS staff and emergency response workers properly. It is a lie, to say that…
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What we owe Harry
No, not that Harry … or that one, we owe this Harry… This is an article about how to save our NHS. For some years now, we’ve all seen the issuing of a crime number as a sign that the police don’t have the staff or the funds to actually pursue a crime. It seems…
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What do we want…?
Today, 1st February 2023, the NEU teachers join in the #CostOfLivingCrisis wave of strikes, and this morning in Hastings, all the trade unions and other groups who answered the call #HastingsDemandsBetter gathered in support. Himself and I looked in at Hastings Station, where there was an ASLEF picket line, passed the government buildings where the…
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The Purity Spiral and the House on Fire
Some of the worst atrocities in our history have been committed by ideologues, people so wedded to a political idea-set that they do their politics by the book, and never actually look at what’s happening in the world. In country after country, vast numbers of people have suffered and died whilst state administrations plough on…
