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 ReadingEvents overnight in Minneapolis ran ahead of my ability to keep track. It meant that when I sat down this morning to write a piece about them, I was faced by a staggering number of facts, details, and narrative threads that I struggled to contain within a simple linear argument. The insanely quick news cycle […]
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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 ReadingUnless I find time later in my day, just a brief update… Wednesday morning, I wrote a new piece for Reaction, which you can read over there. I usually write a piece each week and I should try to remember to link to them when I can. My new piece deals with one of my […]
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Here’s my dilemma, which perhaps I’m uniquely qualified to explain because only I would be dumb enough to admit it… I’m worried that the virus might not come back. So, okay, I phrased that in the very worst way because I’m being deliberately provocative. Obviously, I don’t want the virus to come back. I want […]
Continue ReadingA pandemic lockdown is probably not the best time to consider turning off Twitter for good yet here I am considering just that. I also admit at the outset that I’ll probably fail… Even when I try not to read Twitter, my Twitter shortcut is the first thing I reach for whenever I open my […]
Continue ReadingA 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 […]
Continue ReadingBit quiet yesterday. I was trying to think up some cartoon ideas (came away with about five or six) plus there was a “major incident” in the town. A recycling depot caught fire and caused a blaze that people could see as far away as Manchester to the east and Formby on the coast to […]
Continue ReadingAll kinds of things I want to do today, and bottom of that list was to write something for the blog. Lucky if I get two hits a day at the moment but, then, I should appreciate those two hits and I do. Hence my sitting down and writing this instead of drawing cartoons, which […]
Continue ReadingLord 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 ReadingIt’s here, finally. The latest episode of the W&Y podcast….
Continue ReadingIt’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 […]
Continue ReadingA brief dalliance with white bread knocked me out of my stride earlier in the week. I can’t eat it. I shouldn’t eat it, yet I do have the occasional craving for it and I also sometimes indulge. When that happens, I usually end up feeling flat for a couple of days. I’m a Byronist […]
Continue ReadingWhy Dunciad.com?
It’s a cool domain name and it was available. Yes, I know. Available. Crazy, isn’t it?
Really?
Yes. It also helps that it’s also my favourite satire written by Alexander Pope, one of the most metrically pure English poets who also knew his way around a crude insult or two. If you’ve not read it, you should give it a try.
So this is satire, right?
Can’t deny it. There will be some. But it’s also an experiment in writing and drawing, giving work away for free in order to see how many people are willing to support a writer doing his thing. It’s the weird stuff that I wouldn’t get published elsewhere in this word of diminishing demands and cookie-cutter tastes.
