Local government elections
Andy Newman – who won 208 votes as the Socialist Unity candidate in Swindon North at the 2005 general election – offers a worthwhile analysis of the prospects for the left in the local government elections on Thursday: ‘The three challenges for us are to somehow connect with the Labour Party’s electoral base, which is [...]
Soul: Candi Staton
I’m embarrassed to admit this, but I have spent the last three decades in the belief that Candi Staton is basically your bog standard production line disco diva. But of course, I hadn’t heard any of her work save for ‘Young hearts run free’ and ‘You got the love’. Then, a few weeks back, the [...]
16 point political scale
Partially fuelled by a thread at Stumbling and Mumbling – to which I added a few comments – Actually Existing comes up with a pretty funky 16-point scale on which anybody can rate their politics. Personally speaking, I’m a Pelagian Digger/Left-Hegelian Whig. But hey, that’s just me. How about you? Bookmark It
Labour to lose Tower Hamlets council?
In the early eighties, I lived in pre-gentrification Wapping. Before all the warehouses were converted into million pound yuppie flats, this was London’s low rent district par excellence. You know the the sort of inner city place. About 98% working class, with a few students and struggling artists squatting the derelict council joints. Things just [...]
Will sorts out Haloscan
Big thanks to that Eustonite Geordie bastard Will – who blogs at General Theory of Rubbish – for sorting out Haloscan comments on my html-illiterate behalf. So let the new comments flow … Bookmark It
Workers’ Memorial Day
April 28 – this year as every other year since 1985 – is Workers’ Memorial Day, an occasion the British labour movement really needs to mark more strongly than it usually does. The event is designed to highlight the shocking death toll regulary seen in workplaces around the world. According to statistics from the International [...]
Scolari and football revolutionary defeatism
The BBC website carries a profile of Luiz Felipe Scolari, the likely new England coach, which includes the following fascinating little snippet: ‘Scolari is by nature remarkably open. He will hold court on such subjects as the fact that he tells his players to commit fouls, his admiration for General Pinochet or his prejudice against [...]
Oliver Kamm and ‘historical precedents’
Oliver Kamm continues his efforts to equate Respect and the BNP in his latest column for The Times. As ever, Clever Clogs buttresses his case with some historical precedents: ‘But there are also numerous instances where revolutionary politics have allied with extreme reaction and even fascism. ‘The 1920s and 1930s saw many cases: some French [...]
Mark Oaten’s missus tells all
And, in this week’s Hello! Magazine – or here if you are too much of a cheapskate to buy a copy – Mark Oaten’s wife tells of her reaction on hearing of her Lib-Dem leadership contender hubby’s romps with gay prostitutes: ‘It was something almost too big for me to handle. [Snigger snigger - DO] [...]
A communique from Oliver Kamm
This in my inbox this morning: ‘You wonder what autonomy is. It is well defined in this précis of the argument of Joseph Raz: http://www.oxfordscholarship.com/oso/public/content/philosophy/0198248075/acprof-0198248075-chapter-14.html ‘Raz is a very important figure in modern jurisprudence. ‘I realised after our last exchange that you were not a great one for posting corrections to your mistakes, so I [...]
