Arts
Q&A Review
As if a disease or malignancy, BBC Question Time spreads around the world. I’m sure the people at Broadcasting House prefer ‘franchise’ or ‘licensing’ but I’m certain viewers of the British version of the topical [more…]
Politics
Communism
Rejoice comrades! Net Zero Clean Energy is deliverable(ish)
Just as the US election grabbed all of the media attention (and subsequent tears and tantrums) ukelele-wielding, bug-eyed acolyte of Saint Greta Mad Ed Miliband announced with great glee that his plans to deliver us [more…]
20th Century
Desert Mystery: “Letters from Afrika”, Part Five
In Part Four, I described how Afrika Korps Obergefrieter, Hans Walden, had written to Hildegard Bronnold about suffering in a sandstorm, retreating back through Libya into Tunisia, and his hopes for Christmas 1942. In late [more…]
Democracy
Year in review: A tectonic shift has only just begun
As we’re approaching the final hours of 2024, it is a good time to take a step back and remember what this year taught us. History might not repeat itself, but it does rhyme, as [more…]
Authoritarianism
Anarcho-Tyranny
Ed. NB Sent in BE (Before Elon). 10+ years ago, I was totally disinterested in politics, and my get-out clause was “they’re all the same”. The Brexit vote stirred me to get more interested and [more…]
Economics
Lefty Logic
If someone approached you and took a wild swing at you, you would try to avoid it. Some of you might even fight back but the sensible option is that you would at least take [more…]
Culture
The Nepo Thing
While the term “nepo baby” is a recent addition to cultural vocabulary, the phenomenon of nepotism in entertainment, fashion and media has existed for as long as these industries themselves. Family connections have always played [more…]
20th Century
New Year Past
Beneath the headline London’s Joyous Welcome to the New Year, the Daily Mirror of 1st January 1925 showed a ‘special Daily Mirror photograph’ snapped as revellers welcomed in the New Year at the Albert Hall. [more…]
21st Century
Gen Z, Riggy G, and the Kenyan Pornocracy
Gen Z, Riggy G, and the Kenyan Pornocracy In a political landscape defined by opportunism, spectacle, and betrayal, Kenya’s youth-led protests offered a fleeting glimpse of change – only to be ensnared by the same [more…]