So, went to an activist meeting that was dominated by a small core of people. Afterwards they were heard agreeing that it was an excellent meeting. And you have to wonder, what were their criteria. I think these. "I got to speak a lot/display my virtue and or intelligence/be the centre of attention" (see also... Continue Reading →
Blogging the days away. Day 1-3…
Friday/Saturday Right, so – flight. Not much to say I guess. It was 5 tonnes of carbon into t’atmosphere… Flew in an A380 the first leg, read a bunch of stuff from the Palgrave Handbook of International Political Economy and energy. Very very good stuff it was. Also read a lit review on transitions and... Continue Reading →
1973-5 warnings on #climate change #auspol
We were warned a very long time ago about climate change. I don't mean by the IPCC. I don't even mean by James Hansen (bless him). The warnings were there by the mid-1970s about what might be on the way. In 1973, in the very first issue of Habitat carried an article by W. Strauss... Continue Reading →
May-DUP coalition and #climate change
Note: I pitched this a couple of weeks to a news outlet, was told yes/no/maybe and then waited.. and waited. Further correspondence unanswered, so am posting it here, if only for posterity.... Let’s play a game of pretend. Let’s pretend that the deal wounded Prime Minister Theresa May has stitched with the Northern Ireland... Continue Reading →
#GrenfellTower – “never again” they say. But WHO ensures that? How? #socialmovements
Glued to the newsfeeds. Thinking in horror of the lives cut short, women throwing babies from the ninth floor. The courage of the firefighters, the desperation, the professionalism of the emergency staff, the NHS. Thinking of how burning down a city for fun and profit is nothing new. There's a book we should all read,... Continue Reading →
Citizens Gathering – we need new institutions
Last night I went to a “meeting” of, oh, let’s call it “Citizens Gathering”. After 90 minutes I came away with a very small amount of new information (nothing that I couldn’t have learnt by reading a three minute blog post) and a lot of suspicions confirmed. I have put the word meeting in scare... Continue Reading →
Film Review: The Mummy
"The horror, the horror" said Kurtz. He may have been talking about this film, which as a horror movie is a horror. Tom Cruise is some sort of US army Indiana Jones (I'd love to see his job description) who stumbles on a tomb in Iraq of an Egyptian naughty daddy-killing and inevitably not-quite-dead princess,... Continue Reading →
Thoughts on ‘what next’? #2ndGE2017
Interested in any good articles people have read on what happens in the next six months. My thinking, fwiw is this - May cannot expect to cling on for more than a few months. The DUP deal is inherently unstable, and there are any number of domestic landmines. The thing that is saving her at... Continue Reading →
Manchester and the ‘what to do’ question…
Manchester is famous the world over for its football, its music and now, sadly, for being the latest in an ever-lengthening list of European cities that have suffered terrrorist atrocities- Madrid, London, Oslo, Brussels, Berlin, Nice, Paris – in recent years. (And globally the list takes in Oklahoma City, Boston, Mumbai, Baghdad and so very many... Continue Reading →
On the Manchester bombing – safety, fear, solidarity
Facebook messages come through every minute - people marking themselves as "safe." Twenty two people are not, and sixty more are physically wounded. The psychological wounds for others who were there, for the emergency services, and for others further afield (loved ones, friends) will take time to be obvious, longer still to heal (if they... Continue Reading →
