A new piece by me, over at Reaction, about cultural sectarianism and why we’re in such a bad place. Read it by clicking here… (Though there might be a paywall. Sorry!)
Continue ReadingAre Statues So NaĂŻve?
The re-emergence of the Black Lives Matter as a cultural force means the usual divisive stories are again dominating the headlines. They amount to a screaming match going on around the so-called “cancellation of white culture”. Classic movies such as Gone With The Wind are being withdrawn so producers can give them more historical context […]
Continue ReadingEvents in Bristol
You probably saw that the Black Lives Matter protests in Bristol yesterday escalated to people dragging down the statue of a seventeenth-century slave trader, Edward Colston, and dumping it in the harbour. Among the many hills that people would be wise not to die on, this is surely one of the tallest. That’s not, however, […]
Continue ReadingHouse of Not-So-Common Sense
Sometimes it takes a pandemic to change our behaviour. Other times it’s the sight of something so outrageously idiotic that makes you realise that things haven’t been good for a long time. Take the lamentable sight of MPs snaking around Westminster this week. Could there be a more convincing argument about reforming a system that’s […]
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Why I’ve changed my mind about Dominic Cummings
I was wrong. I admit that now, though I still think I was wrong for the right reasons. If you recall, I couldn’t get behind the hounding of Dominic Cummings because I didn’t think what he did was wrong. Looking after your child shouldn’t be something that weighs against any parent and I don’t care […]
Continue ReadingDonald Trump tweets as Minneapolis burns
Overnight rioting in the city of Minneapolis saw protestors burn down the 3rd Precinct police building. This came after days of increasing tension. Video footage emerged on Monday of a police officer kneeling on the neck of George Floyd, a 46-year old man who had been arrested for trying to pass a counterfeit $20 bill. […]
Continue Reading#DrawDominicCummings 5
I got up on Thursday thinking it was Friday. I think this was largely down to my waking up and finding that I couldn’t move. I might have mentioned that I’d done some weeding yesterday. I’d forgotten. My back hadn’t. Anyway, before I’d realised my mistake, I’d entered into my usual Friday routine, which often […]
Continue ReadingCummings’s Goings
A few days ago, I sat down to write my hot take on the Dominic Cummings story and this is as far as I got… “Meh.” I know, I know… Hugely disappointing, I’m sure. Don’t @ me. I know this is the bit where I’m meant to mine deep seams of filth to describe the […]
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Lord Sumption Doesn’t Do Science
Lord Sumption is at it again, writing from his place at the high table as one the UK’s top jurists… And, yes, it’s important to note that I did write “top jurists”. I didn’t write the country’s top epidemiologist, virologist, data modeller, or mathematician. Nor is he an economist, behaviouralist, or even a scientist of […]
Continue ReadingCaffeine Paranoia and the Culture War
It’s been an emotional week, but I can’t decide if that’s because of the caffeine or the culture war… I do know I’ve been feeling a bit fraught; on a slightly paranoid edge that I can’t totally explain. Part of it is certainly down to an excess of caffeine. I normally limit myself to the […]
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A World for Literalists
Words can be terribly slippery. William Empson in his seminal work on ambiguity from 1930 described the effect of these semantic slips as being either “witty or deceitful”; you can look on the effect of ambiguity as providing interpretive freedom but also the chance they’ll simply steer you in the wrong direction. Poetic language pivots […]
Continue ReadingExercising Mr Invective [Explicit]
It’s a warm lazy Saturday so I thought I’d give my brain a bit of a workout and paddle it around that husk of nothingness floating in a sea of irrelevance that is Nigel Farage. I drew a cartoon yesterday in a fit of… well, “pique” isn’t the right word. It makes it sound too […]
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