Category: Uncategorized
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How are your borderlines?

Ambling down the road outside the hotel, having a last fag before bedtime, and I see legs. There’s a bloke standing behind those overhanging bushes. Swivel on my heel, natural as can be, because my intention, obviously, was to walk precisely that far then march smartly back to the hotel. Contemplating the fact that I…
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Still doing politics

Notice to those doing whatever it is they are doing in Westminster: politics has left the building – mind you don’t get left behind. Thank you, LabourBAME Hastings and Hastings and Rye Labour Women’s Forum for an excellent gathering and an excellent supper in Hastings last night. Thank you, speaker Marc Wadsworth for reminding us…
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Why politicians are stupid

Never mind Starmer, Johnson or any other besuited blaguers. This line from Ceri Williams, in the informal, ‘thank you and good night’ speech at the end of an unofficial fringe meeting, was, in my opinion the most important utterance of this year’s entire political conference season. It’s like when you go to Spain with the…
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Another community activist says farewell to Labour

Guest blog: Julia Price Julia Price joined the Labour Party in 2015, in south London. She canvassed for Labour in local elections and for the Mayor of London election in May 2016 when the Labour candidate, Tooting MP, Sadiq Khan won. After moving to St Leonards in 2016, she helped with canvassing in 2017.…
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Really useful feminism

Why we should all read Julie Bindel’s new book I’ve been wondering why feminism grabbed me so much the second time I looked, but not the first. I remember feminism going on around me when I was a teenager. I had a vague idea it involved a lot of arguments about whether you should shave…
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Anatomy of a witch hunt

A newly elected councillor (let us call her Councillor A) abstains in a council vote to make another councillor (let’s say Councillor B) Deputy Mayor. No news there, you would have thought. But when news gets out, the inevitable speculative social media posts appear, quickly escalating to accusing not just Councillor B but every councillor…
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Solidarity? It’s out here!

Being a socialist feminist in mainstream politics is a pain, it really is. If you intend to read this article, for your sanity, before you start could you remind yourself that outside of party politics, people have families, friends and colleagues with a range of opinions and ideas, and they mostly manage to get along,…
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Dwellers on the threshold

List A: Things you can do without being a member of a political party Set up and promote petitions Go on demos Organise demos Organise political education and film nights Write to your MP Get up delegations to go and visit MPs for discussions Write blogs, make videos and pod casts Join an affiliated union…
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Everything is fine, nothing to see here!

“Do what you can” “Choose your battles” I have heard that too much lately, and usually as advice to women to leave certain contentious issues alone. It’s not working. What it’s doing (oooh call Prevent!) is pushing large numbers of women to the margins of culture and society. No, I am not exaggerating. Imagine…. Anorexia…
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Who or what is coming home?

If football ‘comes home’, I have a question or two. I think I have watched about two ‘proper’ football matches in my life. I really don’t do international level sport-as-a-spectator stuff. So I’m a bit worried about how you go about writing a blog about football. It’s like this – it’s clear ‘football’ has changed.…