Waiting for Corona
- March 15, 2020
- by
- Matt
“The face of London was—now indeed strangely altered: I mean the whole mass of buildings, city, liberties, suburbs, Westminster, Southwark, and altogether; for as to the particular part called the city, or within the walls, that was not yet much infected. But in the whole the face of things, I say, was much altered; sorrow and sadness sat upon every face; and though some parts were not yet overwhelmed, yet all looked deeply concerned; and, as we saw it apparently coming on, so every one looked on himself and his family as in the...
Coronavirus: I herd it through the grapevine
- March 13, 2020
- by
- Matt
It may not be true that we get the kind of politicians we deserve, but it’s fair to say that if you elect politicians who have spent years inflicting needless economic pain on the most vulnerable members of society, who brought their country to the brink of economic ruin in order to fulfill a nationalist...
Going Viral
- March 11, 2020
- by
- Matt
There is no good time for a pandemic, but some historical moments are definitely worse than others. The coronavirus has erupted in a world dominated by nationalist rightwing populist politics with an authoritarian/fascistic tinge, many of which draw their support from fears and phobias about globalisation, or ‘globalism’ as the far-right call it, that are...
Broken English
- March 01, 2020
- by
- Matt
So the government has released its post-Brexit ‘points-based’ immigration system, and no one will be surprised to hear that ‘All applicants, both EU and non-EU citizens, will need to demonstrate that they have a job offer from an approved sponsor, that the job offer is at the required skill level, and that they speak...
Eugenics for Dummies
- February 19, 2020
- by
- Matt
There’s been a lot of talk about eugenics in the UK this last week, thanks to Dominic Cummings’s ‘superforecaster’ Andrew Sabisky. Sabisky’s rapid rise and fall is entirely due to the ‘controversial comments’, as the media likes to call them, that he made on various internet forums, including Cummings’s own blog. These pronouncements include the...
Brexit: Springtime for Racists
- February 03, 2020
- by
- Matt
For anyone seeking inspiration in these dark times, I recommend the moving Storyville documentary My Italian Secret: Italy’s Forgotten Heroes. It tells the story of the Italian cyclist Gino Bartali and the Italians who saved more than 10,000 Jews from Nazi extermination during World War 2, by hiding them or smuggling them to safety. Like...
Recent Comments