Guest Post: Catalonia, the Trials of Shame
- February 11, 2019
- by
- Matt
This week the first trials of Catalan government officials, politicians, parliamentarians, police officials and civic activists for charges relating to the 1 October 2017 independence referendum begin in Madrid. This is a guest post from my good friend Andreu Jené, giving a Catalan perspective on these events, with my translation.
Cartoon credit: Paco Santero
Tomorrow the first...
All the Devils Are Here
- February 09, 2019
- by
- Matt
It’s been a hell of a week, hasn’t it? It’s fine for us to compare the EU to Hitler, the Soviet Union, the mafia, and a dictatorship. It’s ok to accuse the EU of torturing us by ‘administering punishment beatings’, as the sixth form yob who bizarrely became our last foreign secretary once declared.
It was...
Drill Baby Drill: Donald Trump’s Sociopathic Gaze
- February 07, 2019
- by
- Matt
There are many reasons why the rise of populist ethnonationalism and authoritarianism is bad news. But one reason which tends to receive little attention is the impact of this phenomenon on the environment.
For some time now, we have become accustomed – too accustomed – to a relentless stream of alarming reports on the future of...
Turning Point: All the Young (Alt-Right) Dudes
- February 05, 2019
- by
- Matt
As we sleepwalk towards the Brexit iceberg on 29 March, we should remember that the hardright ‘populists’ who have been dreaming of this outcome for so long don’t see it as an end, but as part of an ongoing process.
For some of them it’s a famous victory in a wider ethnonationalist assault on the international...
Immigration: Stop Pandering
- February 02, 2019
- by
- Matt
If there is one thing British politicians always seem able to agree on, it’s that they must respond to public concerns about immigration.
Rarely, if ever, do the politicians who seek to placate these concerns consider their validity. Is it true that Romanians and Bulgarians are all poor and therefore likely to be criminals – an...
Parliament Passes the Bomb
- January 30, 2019
- by
- Matt
Some of you may remember the family game called Pass the Bomb. For those haven’t played it, the rules are simple: You pass a ticking bomb back and forth between the group and try to make sure you aren’t the one holding it when it ‘explodes’.
This is what parliament did yesterday, in a monumental dereliction...
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