These things, they write themselves, more or leese. Letter in today's MEN (28 Jan 2021).
Amnesia is the price of admission
In the same way that when you enter a prison as a cop, you have to give up your weapon. Well, when you enter the prison of the institutions, you have to give up your memory, as well as your spine. Or you can keep the memory but people will look askance and be a... Continue Reading →
Dog Day late morning, with Igor and Mabel in Alexandra Park
I am doing a LOT of yomping around Alexandra Park (2km perimeter, according to GoogleMaps). Mostly with 24 kilos of bricks and weights in a backpack held together with duct tape, while talking to myself on an ancient phone: I run the files through an online converter, and then through Otter.ai which transcribes my words... Continue Reading →
Letter: “Brass Neck of the Year” contender #Manchester
Ten days into January and we already have a clear favourite for the Manchester City Council “Brass Neck of the Year” award. Coun Angeliki Stogia (‘We won’t be intimidated by vandals,’ M.E.N., 10 January) is quoted as saying “we want feedback from as many people as possible.” In a letter last week I pointed out... Continue Reading →
Letter to MEN: Levenshulme, Great Ancoats St, this Council’s incompetence and scrutiny…
Published Friday 8th January 2021 I wish your article about the latest cock-up by Manchester City Council (Chaos as giant ‘window boxes’ installed to ease traffic, MEN, 7 January) came as a surprise. Having placed a bunch of ‘window boxes’ on the road, it suddenly occurred to the well-paid geniuses in the Council’s Highways and... Continue Reading →
(De)fibbing about Glasgow. More hamster-wheel nonsense for the UK #climate “movement”
The Glasgow thing is starting already. COP26, the international climate meeting that was supposed to take place in November 2020 but will now - perhaps- happen in November 2021- has changed its meaning from "magnet that will get all the iron fillings pointing in the same direction" (see this December 2019 blog post) to a... Continue Reading →
Letter to MEN: Stuck on island with disaster capitalists
Letter in the Manchester Evening News- Bill Flynn's excellent letter ('Nothing new in risk to rights of workers', Viewpoints, MEN, 2nd January) gives a compelling and enraging account of the way workers' rights have been eroded over the last 40 years.Thanks to the first-past-the-post voting system and the ownership of the mass media by billionaire... Continue Reading →
The Oresteia, feminism, Sartre and all that jazz… – RACC while the world is ruined
Have decided to do some remedial accumulation of cultural capital (RACC). Back in the day, there was a time when I read aloud to myself in order to plough through some Big Fat Works. I'm thinking particularly of Paradise Lost (Milton) and Don Juan (Byron). There may have been others. Well, new year, new resolutions,... Continue Reading →