Those who control both the levers of state and (ultimately) overarching narratives have magic powers to stand cause and effect on its head. They can, for instance, goad a nuclear armed state for decades with lies, insults and broken promises … Read More »
A few days and two years ago a communist with comrades in Western Ukraine berated me for defending Russia’s SMO. In doing so, he fumed – I’ll omit the more colourful of his epithets – I was “abandoning revolutionary principles … Read More »
Many of us ask ourselves, “what would I do if I was alive during slavery? Or the Jim Crow South? Or apartheid? What would I do if my country was committing genocide?” The answer is, you’re doing it. Right now. Aaron … Read More »
Forgive my speaking with a little less of that nuance and gentleness of tone which has long won friends, influenced people and earned untold plaudits for my skills as a true-born diplomat. It’s even possible I may today come across … Read More »
News of Navalny’s death has been seized on – predictably is too weak a term – by ‘our’ politicians and media. Any headway made by the Tucker Carlson interview in shifting perceptions of Putin and the country he leads has, … Read More »
In my previous post I spoke of the canary-in-the-coalmine phenomenon of: … gamekeepers turned poacher; their proliferation but one marker among many of the West’s moral and hegemonic decline. Sour grapes propagandists? Well our rulers and hired hacks would say … Read More »
The Independent, February 24 2024 Good people, incisive documenters of the criminality of those in power, can have worrying blind spots. Take tax specialist and modern monetary theorist, Professor Richard Murphy. Just today he’s penned a fine piece – I … Read More »
Yesterday I wrote of Ecuador’s bananas. The same day, the Daily Mail was warning Britons of further fallout from Putin’s totally unprovoked war on plucky Ukraine. A war which, as the above photographic proof clearly shows, Zelensky is winning hands … Read More »
To cheers from the crowd outside the Royal Courts of So-Called, a silver Mercedes driver honks furiously … … but she’s the exception. There’s no shortage of horn play but it’s mostly from work vehicles. A 76 toots as it … Read More »
Tuesday, February 20. I’m in London for the Julian Assange extradition hearing, and will post later on that. Meanwhile I sit in the Ice Wharf at Camden Lock, spinning out a half of Abbott as I’m driving today, and making … Read More »