Times are tough. Today I did something I'm proud of, something that helped other people in a couple of ways. This is a blog about that. As part of The Job, (a very good job, one I am grateful to have), I am doing a bit of seminar-conducting. One problem with seminars is that either... Continue Reading →
“Constructive” as a codeword for “I don’t want to address your points.” See also “praktisch”
Sorry if what follows is banal, but it was new to me. Ah, bless Facebook... The word "constructive," it occurs to me after more than half a century on t'planet, is deployed by people who don't want to engage with criticism of what their cherished organisation has (not) been doing. So, if I point out... Continue Reading →
Destroy our sense-making – of Cassandras, rotten apples and more
One of the easiest ways to win is to confuse your opponents so much that they simply don't even know they are in a fight. Saves time and treasure if you can do this, obviously. I could go on and ON about Gramsci this, hegemony that, blah de blah. Let's go for a couple of... Continue Reading →
The Magpie, an appreciation, a project
The Magpie was the newsletter of the Manchester Wildlife Group which had begun in 1984. The first Magpie appeared in 1986, and the last issue 54 appeared in 2005. At its height, it was a quarterly publication. The format was A4 landscape, with staples in the middle. It was sent out to members of the... Continue Reading →
City Green – Manchester Green Party newsletter. Copies from 1987 to 1992
The Working Class Movement Library is a fantastic place (does precisely what it says on the tin). It's in Salford, about 20 minutes cycle from where I currently live with one wife, three cats and several thousand (10? 15?) books. Last June I went on a bit of an archive binge at the WCML, tracking... Continue Reading →
Chaotic conceptions – what would a NON-chaotic conception look like? Or is all chaos? #Mysterions
Let's start with an under-rated tweet. https://twitter.com/marcsrhudson/status/1483901631615971345 Yeah, that's me half an hour ago and I would already struggle to tell you how I came across Sayer 1992. Oh, wait, it was the 2003 paper on Regional Development Agencies and Clusters (reading it for The Job). We are pattern-making machines. We see causation when there... Continue Reading →
What can we learn from a 50 year old Blueprint?
'A Blueprint for Survival,' the first big eco-manifesto, is 50. Below I explore where it came from, how it was received and why its lessons still matter - as part of the "All Our Yesterdays" project. See the full report on which this guest post below is based here. On Thursday 13th January 1972 the... Continue Reading →
New video: #climate and energy policies of the UK become entwined, 2000 to 2009…
Most of my videos are rough as a badger's arse. This one, this is rougher. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HGdF1Vcl1Ag Here's a version of the transcript I was stumbling over... Hello, This video will tell you a little bit about the entwining of climate and energy policies between 2000 and 2009 in the UK. There’s a story about what... Continue Reading →
Climate Change and Business Parks – a 1991 article
There are people still around in Manchester who have been campaigning - with decency and diligence - for decades. Some of them were involved in the Manchester Wildlife Group, which had a wonderful newsletter called the Magpie. The editor, Ian Brown, very kindly gave me all his copies, which I've turned into pdfs and uploaded... Continue Reading →
New Year, same goals (ish) – Write more, shift lard, juggle etc. #ExtremeNarcisissism #Delardification
First half of last year I lost a load of weight. I'd come back from a trip to Australia having regained almost a third of what I'd been working hard to lose. On December 28th 2020 I was at 138kg. On May 30th 2021, just before another trip to Oz, I was down at 113.5kg.... Continue Reading →
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