UK EU Membership and Right Wing Unthink

We receive £5 billion directly from the EU in public sector payouts. It’s not much but it is officially on page 20 of the Treasury report: http://www.hm-treasury.gov.uk/d/european_union_finances_2010.pdf The treasury figures don’t go to town on the private sector benefits which could be quite a lot depending on how well they’re doing. Membership of the EU [...]

Eastenders Mockney Nonsense at the Heart of Government

The idea that people convicted of rioting crimes should have to ‘look their victims in the eye’, reminds me of a particularly bad episode of Eastenders, or “London as we remember it”, complete with pork pie hats. Nick Clegg to unveil ‘riot payback scheme’ as No 10 agrees to inquiry When Clegg jumps in the [...]

London’s Fashion Riot – The Genius of Theresa May

As speeches go, Theresa May’s response to the third day of rioting in London was one of her greatest yet, full of strident invective against the mindless few and delivered with volume. “Criminality!” and “condemnation!” were two of the words she repeated endlessly. But what can she mean? Surely, rioting is nothing more than “criminality”. [...]

Danny Alexander and the Jargon of Change Management

Anyone who’s worked in British industry may well recognise the duplicitous tone of Danny Alexander’s “change is good for you” speech on public sector pensions on June 17th. We’ve heard it all before in the decades of evaluations, restructuring, reorganisations and rebrandings by the bean counters. It’s all about “change” in the pessimistic Dylanesque sense. [...]

Question Paper Errors – Economics

Which of the following destroyed the British economy. Was it: a/ Gordon Brown b/ Alastair Darling c/ Ed Balls or d/ None of the above. Related articles: Exam board watchdog investigates question paper errors

The Facts About Margaret Thatcher You Can’t See on Her Wikipedia Entry

Around May 12th I tried to add some facts about Margaret Thatcher on her Wikipedia entry. It took me a couple of days to enter all the laborious citations and references required. Sadly, it was all removed a week later by a Wikipedia editor on grounds that I was coatracking, ie “entering a Wikipedia article that [...]

The First Tory Boom and Bust Is Coming

BBC news at one: “In London, house prices jumped 3% in April, to an average of £352,187. London’s annual change now stands at 5%, which is much stronger growth than that seen by any other region in England and Wales,” the Land Registry said.” So the Tory boom and bust is coming. Hold on to your wallets. Land [...]

Fiction Addiction and that Oily Chin Cameron Robbing the Rich

Two story rejections on one Sunday blew the fuses but by today normal addiction to my failed efforts had returned in the form of one word that shouted out to be revised. The memory for what you’ve written always works under the surface despite not seeing the story for months. Once you know it’s failed, you [...]

Red Ed Subjected to McCarthyite Witchhunt

Ed won… I knew he would. When he made a speech saying we shouldn’t be told to fear the free market, the media got the jitters. Of course we should fear the free market! At last, a Labour leader who doesn’t believe in the Just Do It Or Die mantra of the Tories. So we [...]

Scarguevara

Today the TUC voted for action against the Tory cuts so it seemed like a good time to wheel him out again. Scarguevara. After all he was right. He’s my attempt to put the familiar Che Guevara onto Arthur Scargill using Photoshop. The sound of Osborne hacking away at the welfare state on BBC News [...]

Follow

Get every new post delivered to your Inbox.