Just got a lovely Twitter reply - Marc. I’ve decided I’m going to get into your stuff on climate movements. Where do I start? What has worked, what doesn’t, what’s needed next. That kind of thing. Especially anything practical at city level. This request sounds lazy but I’m very time poor. Thanks! So, this is... Continue Reading →
James Baldwin, the UK climate “movement” and the Safety Dance – what is to be done?
James Baldwin was a very smart guy. For the purpose of this blog post, the key insight is from a January 1962 New York Times column, in which he wrote "not everything that can be faced can be changed, but nothing can be changed until it is faced." And so on to the UK climate... Continue Reading →
Top bantz about writing to your MP…
This is good. Maybe you can try writing to your MP, but there doesn’t really seem to be much point doing that unless you happen to collect headed paper with some rote spiel dismissing your concerns printed on it. Props to Tom Whyman - https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2024/mar/18/britain-diy-tickets-illnesses-services-society See also Viable Democracy by Michael Margolis
Of Braudel, Boeing and asset-stripping: crucial tools for understanding what’s going on.
Items discussed Doctorow, C. 2024. We may not know what’s in the box: but we can tell if it’s been damaged in transit. March 25 Tkacik, M. 2024. Suicide Mission. The American Prospect, March 28 Davies, W. 2024. Anti-market. London Review of Books, vol 46, no 7 These three articles will, separately and especially together,... Continue Reading →
Wretched and not entrancing energy policy podcast
I won't mention the name of it, but I just listened to an unusually vacuous podcast by Important And Serious People. No gory details, but this - in the discussion of whether 1.5 degrees target was dead, they didn't even have the wherewithal to look at the history of it as a target (let alone... Continue Reading →
Wilfred Bion, psychoanalyst, and the current Conservative meltdown
You know when you properly encounter a new idea and then you "see" its applications everywhere (and you overuse it/misuse it). To riff on a good saying - "when you've got a new shiny hammer that feels good, every problem looks like a nail" (1). Well, that's me and Wilfred Bion's idea of the work-group... Continue Reading →
On the “slow” motion privatisation of the NHS and feelings of dread
Twice now, once last year and just now, I've had the experience I am sure millions of others are having. You need something done and rather than it being dealt with "in-house" the NHS is farming it out to private companies. All in the name of "efficiency" don't you know. Never mind the senior politicians... Continue Reading →
Of masochism and learning to walk away (or not even go there).
The Wife has told me a million times. The Wife is - as so frustratingly-often is the case - absolutely right. But still I attended a webinar of a group that claims it is doing things differently (I won't go further than that). And the webinar was about a very very important question, around the... Continue Reading →
Two webinars and a podcast – (#UsualRant abt uselessness of most “intellectual” work “for” social movements)
Stop me if you've heard this one before (pro-tip; you have from me, endlessly). People like the sound of their own voices. People who think (or DO) have a lot to say like to say it. They are remarkably incurious about what their audience (the ego-fodder) might know/have to contribute. The hosts of these events... Continue Reading →
Ban the word “we” (also, bragging abt exercise)
Sat on an exercise bike before work this morning. In past had read Financial Timeses and Morning Stars, but that gets in the way of really going for it. So I was listening to a podcast (I like to keep up with new trends). I won't mention the name, but it's a well-respected one, with... Continue Reading →