I recently (within the last month) was on an online meeting that used all the "right" buzzwords about generative, transformative, interactive. It was... Ah, hell, you know where this is going. It was the most stale top-down format you could "imagine." (You don't have to imagine it, you've been subjected to it most of your... Continue Reading →
GroundCop Day, over and over again. COP6, COP26, whatever.
The year is 2048. COP46, delayed twice already because of the ongoing Covid-43 pandemic, is due to take place in the Dutch archipelago. Activists are encouraging everyone to join in a canoe flotilla to shout at the plutocrats and securocrats as they meet to discuss who is going to get what compensation (nobody and nothing)... Continue Reading →
Messianic, millenarian and moronic – or “XR is functionally extinct, thank goodness”
tl;dr - I'm allowed to be angry about people who really ought to know better colluding with muppetry. Worse than useless. If you sat smart people down and asked them to come up with something that would make building granular, thickly networked radical movements and movement organisations that could sustain themselves in the face of... Continue Reading →
Letter: You get exactly as much justice as you can compel…
Letter MEN 8th June 2021 ROD Slater’s excellent letter (Viewpoints, M.E.N. 7 June) makes the compelling point that this government (like others before it, of all stripes) is not considering “the dangers inherent in an unfair society.” I’ve recently been rummaging around in the archives of the Working Class Movement Library, and can confirm the... Continue Reading →
Those books I didn’t buy #02
The postman definitely didn't bring these today The geography of pollution: A study of Greater Manchester (1974, Manchester University Press) Peter Scott The Happy Man (Peter Scott was the son of That Scott (of t'Antarctic) and the David Attenborough of is day...
Those books I didn’t buy #01
On Saturday I definitely bought a lovely bag for The Wife. When I got home I found that some evil person had included some books. BookSpeculation on why it ended up in the bagVurt by Jeff NoonManchester sci-fi!!Out of the Wreckage: A new politics for an age of crisis by George MonbiotWill there be any... Continue Reading →
LOOK AT THIS BAG. No, there are no books in it. (It’s all my mother-in-law’s fault)
There was a benefit sale for Gaza today. My mother-in-law flagged it on Twitter. I went, and bought this very cool bag for Dr Wifey, proceeds to charity. No, I didn't buy any books. Those are NOT books inside the bag. Who are you going to believe, me or your lying eyes?
The Lucifer Ploy: Manchester City Council and loyalty tests #TomEllis
Dr Wifey and I have vegged out through 5 (count 'em, five) seasons of the ludicrous, luscious, delirious and devilish show Lucifer. It's about (spoilers) Lucifer getting sick of Hell and deciding to own a nightclub on Earth. He teams up with an LAPD detective to solve murders, which always miraculously help him/them cope with... Continue Reading →
“Technofixes for environmental problems? Not gonna work” – a warning from… 1972
Benny Rothman was a mensch. This I knew. What I didn't know was that his son, Harry Rothman, was an academic at University of Manchester. In 1972 a book of his was published- "Murderous providence : a study of pollution in industrial societies" According to one blurb- "The author argues that pollution is basically a... Continue Reading →
My objection to Hough End Fields “developments”
TFC has been forced to hit the pause button on their plans for Hough End Fields. The campaign (see website here) is still asking folks to submit objections before the "old" deadline of Tuesday 1st June, and there's a good portal for this. My general take on these things is to use the opportunity to... Continue Reading →
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