Two weeks ago an essay appeared on the Lockdown Sceptics site by one Alexis Fitzgerald. Headed, The Left-Wing Case Against Lockdown, it began thus: I consider myself to be left-wing on virtually every political topic: I am a socially-liberal social … Read More »
The thrust of my recent post, If only I wasn’t a commitment phobe, argued that the science and its underlying data are insufficiently developed or clear to support the levels of certainty professed on all sides of a somewhat tribalist … Read More »
Science matches theories with evidence and attempts to falsify them, so they can be refined to better match reality. A theory from a group of scientists is just that: a theory. Believing the opinion of that group without critical verification … Read More »
Posted on behalf of Chik Collins and Peter Jones, as follow up to their earlier call No unsafe return to work! Stay at home! Unite across the UK to save lives and to work for a socially just reconstruction! In … Read More »
Here’s a question that’s foxed millions. Can you spot the odd one out in this list? George Bush’s discovery that Saddam had weapons of mass destruction, Trump’s discovery that Assad used poison gas at Douma (with the OPCW leant on … Read More »
A few years ago I was on a UCU picket line for a one day strike at Sheffield Hallam University. I was now retired but remained a union member, and had shown up to do my bit. Picketers came and … Read More »
The financial resources government has made available for a pause in economic life show the viability of non-capitalist economic planning. But as in 2008, such largesse will come at huge cost to ordinary people unless the labour movement can show … Read More »
This post also features on Off-Guardian For weeks my political focus has narrowed almost exclusively to Covid-19. It’s not that I haven’t noted other things. Increased Washington bellicosity over China, Iran and Venezuela has been hard to ignore, likewise the … Read More »
Here’s a full list of postal districts for the Coventry (CV) postal area: Granted, when I checked three other postal areas – Sheffield, Nottingham and Slough – they too showed gaps in the district numbering. Still, makes you wonder, innit? … Read More »
A version of this letter can be seen in Off-Guardian. Its thrust – that while I share the latter’s concerns over irreversible inroads on civil liberties, I also share Left outrage over capitalism’s exposed inadequacies – is common to both … Read More »