What were we saying?

"Hamas officials" were petty bureaucrats doing municipal jobs.

With my tin foil hat on

I am suggesting that there are sets of affinities that encourage people and their friends, firms, institutions, communities, governments and enterprises to act in certain ways. Blackboard provided a means towards control of the curriculum should someone want to. The patent application was, possibly, late dot-com chutzpah. Its subsequent deployment strikes me as strategic and in line with neoconservative affinities. Evidently, today in the deep winter of 2025.

Slaughter of the scapegoats

After "they" drown or otherwise kill, or deport (to where?) all the scapegoats, I mean refugees - do you fucking seriously think people do what migrants do because it is an easier and pleasanter option? - then, "they" will have to turn on themselves. But how can "we" be around with popcorn to watch the … Continue reading Slaughter of the scapegoats

Why there is shit in the Thames

This story about national infrastructure should be salutary. Anything fiddly and hard to deal with has been slid off the shoulders of the private sector back onto the "common-wealth". The "state" has no interest in anyone but the biggest profit-takers.

Composting

The composting system. Kitchen and soft garden waste in... We get two veg boxes a week. One is from a local organic farm. The other is an "Oddbox" of farm-rescued veg that is surplus to supermarket requirements. We eat a lot of vegetable soup. Rots down And then gets turned into the second chamber... Second … Continue reading Composting

A Failing State

Britain is, I believe, a failing state among floundering nations. As the "state" withdraws from sectors of activity it becomes just another firm among many: a big gang, yes, but having no more validity and diminishing loyalty.

For a new left?

An idea central to my "political philosophy" these days is that Marxism and neoliberalism, while considered antitheses, each grows from European Enlightenment thinking where hierarchy and teleology are both values and organising principles (principles encode values). Each strives to "better" the world through arranging things in orders and directions. "Growth" in wealth is a common … Continue reading For a new left?

Privatisation

Privatisation, the political economic theme of the '80s and '90s, is often discussed in industrial terms. Coal, steel, automobiles, communications, water, and so on. But, I don't hear the term applied to housing. There was a "sell-off" of public housing, but it wasn't spoken of in terms like the sale of our national housing industry. … Continue reading Privatisation

The war machine’s greed

George Monbiot was speaking over Al's shoulder, of the vandals who are wrecking the earth, and spoke of the energy industries, water and other extractive activities. But I didn't hear him name the "war machine", the defense and security industry, the military-industrial complex or the fin-tech infosys sustaining it all. When the masses are happy … Continue reading The war machine’s greed