The Brexit Party: All Men Shall (Not) Be Brothers
- July 04, 2019
- by
- Matt
In case anyone ever doubts what a sad, petty and downright nasty country we are becoming, the Brexit Party will always be there to remind us. On Monday, they managed to stage a mighty protest by turning their backs – turning their backs I tell you! – on a young orchestra playing Beethoven’s Ode to Joy at the opening of the European Parliament. Courage like this really does leave Tiananmen Square in the shade doesn’t it? It’s even more moving when you think that they wouldn’t turn their backs on their salaries.
The Resistible Rise of Boris the Clown
- June 26, 2019
- by
- Matt
Yesterday morning I watched Boris Johnson give two absolute car crash interviews on LBC and Talk Radio. It was hard to know which of them was the worst: the one in which he refused to answer Nick Ferrari’s question regarding the date of his ‘Boris and Carrie’ photo, or the one in which he mumbled...
Tory Crackhouse
- June 09, 2019
- by
- Matt
For the last three years UK politics have become a collective political hallucination that makes Lucy in the Sky With Diamonds seem like a script for a gritty sociorealist documentary. Instead of rocking horse people eating marshmallow pie, it’s a country stalked by grifters, fascist thugs, unicorns and monsters; where demagogues accuse politicians of treason...
Trump: All Hail to the Chief
- June 03, 2019
- by
- Matt
I’ve been away from the UK the last week, and made it back just in time for the state visit of the Trump clan. I’m glad I did, because just to know that Trump and co are now walking on my ancestral soil is oddly bracing, rejuvenating, and above all educational.
I mean, what patriotic Brit...
Brexit: Don’t Mention the War
- May 19, 2019
- by
- Matt
Badly-remembered history tends to produce bad politics, and bad politics often results in misremembered or mythologised versions of history. In the case of Brexit, both tendencies have been borne out repeatedly by the obsessive references to World War 2 to which Leavers are prone.
Suggest that a ‘no deal’ Brexit may be a disaster for the...
Rapey Jokey Time
- May 09, 2019
- by
- Matt
Heard any good rape jokes recently guys? How about this one, which Labour MP Jess Phillips posted on twitter yesterday:
Just leaving Westminster and and man ran down the street along side me asking me about why Carl Benjamin shouldn’t be able to joke about my rape. Shouting “I pay your wages”.
— Jess Phillips...
About Me
I’m a writer, campaigner and journalist. My latest book is The Savage Frontier: The Pyrenees in History and the Imagination (New Press/Hurst, 2018). The Infernal Machine is where I write on politics, history, cinema and other things that interest me.
Recent Comments