Blogging Volumes

About a week ago, I got a knock on the door. A man from the Labour party was here to ask if I'd given any thought to who I'd be voting for in the upcoming general election. I said "Green, this time." The man said, "I see - and had you maybe thought about why you're not giving your vote to Labour?" "I'm more on the Corbyn side of the party than the Starmer side, politically," I replied. The man looked about to give a pre-prepared response, and then stopped. He sighed, shook his head, and said: "Me too..." And this appears to be where the British Left stands, in the run-up to the election. On the one side, those ready to vote for a party who are currently throwing everything they've got at electing just  4 MPs into parliament; and on the other side, disillusioned Corbyn supporters suddenly stating that principles don't matter as much as winning elections. This election is about 'stopping the Tories'; the problem is,

 A few weeks ago, I went to the protest encampment on Newcastle University's campus, to sit, chant, listen and add another face to the group. Students were occupying a green space outside the King's Gate building (where students receive therapy, other forms of support, and where a student from the encampment was deliberately injured by a member of staff when they tried to set up a meeting with the Chancellor of the university, Chris Day). The group behind the encampment, Apartheid Off Campus Ncl , has three key demands: that the university disclose all investments with companies currently targeted by the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions movement; that the university divests from those companies and ceases all connection to them; and that they protect the students' right to stand in solidarity with the Palestinian people. They also ask that the university makes a formal pledge regarding these things, and that they call for a ceasefire in Gaza. Absolutely all of these deman

Content warnings: discussion of suicide, self-harm, grief, genocide Don't set yourself on fire. The act of self-immolation as a form of political protest has a long history, and in recent months, some people have committed suicide by fire in response to the genocide in Gaza. Every single one of these people deserves immense respect for their empathy, for their integrity, and their commitment to standing in solidarity with the people of Palestine.  But I've been in a protest group where two young people set themselves on fire for the cause, and this kind of protest cannot be valorised. The romanticisation of self-sacrifice leads to nothing but grief. We must find a way to appreciate and acknowledge the sincerity of those who self-immolate for a political message, while strictly dissuading any further acts of suicide. This is for a very simple reason: unnecessary violence cannot end unnecessary violence. There are compelling arguments as to why violence, in many circumstances, is

I almost certainly now have more books than I have life remaining to read them in. My laptop looks back at me beneath a shelf of books; to my right, three full shelves, labelled, from top to bottom, 'Activism', 'Plays' and 'Writing' struggle under the weight of more books; behind me, two more, taller sets of shelves carry my science, sci-fi, philosophy, history, biography, and some random books. On top of my wardrobe sits a large, stuffed tub of books I've read already. And then there's all the books downstairs. I've annexed most walls of my family's dining room for my volumes on politics, all my general fiction, and my poetry. There's also a few hardbacks that wouldn't fit anywhere else. The defence "well at least I don't smoke" is becoming less and less effective. The cliché line of most addicts is: "I can quit any time I want." I'm not even going to try that one. I can't quit. I will pile up books until

 Three strands run through the history of humankind: magic, science, and religion. All human societies operate on some combination of each of these; in most, some strands dominate more than others. To live is magic, there is a science to laughter, and few knowledge-systems understand love as deeply as religion. My aim in 2024 is to braid these three human perspectives into one another, living in alignment with the deepest wisdom of each. Live Expanded, my resolution to 'live' means: to fully explore, and come to terms with, what it means to really 'exist'. Over the course of 2024, I want to develop a richer picture of my 'self' - to investigate the boundaries of where 'I' end and the rest of the universe begins (if there indeed are any such boundaries). The Western philosophical tradition has led most of us to see ourselves as discrete entities, divorced from the rest of everything. We are the 'rational animal' Aristotle talks about, separate fro

Robert Jenrick, the UK's Immigration Minister, resigned because a bill to send migrants to Rwanda doesn't breach enough human rights legislation.  These people are evil. It is surreal watching BBC News at the best of times, but the past few months have been borderline incomprehensible. The logic of the Rwanda policy is so flagrantly bizarre that every interview seems like a scene from a satirical comedy, written by people so insecure about their ability to send a clear message that they make their characters regularly verbally signpost how evil they are.  The base logic is as follows: "small boats" are causing a national emergency. In order to stop these small boats, we need to deport random asylum seekers to Rwanda, which is the only possible country we can send them to, and the only possible way of stopping the existential threat of dinghies in the Channel. The European Convention on Human Rights, the Human Rights Act, the Refugee Convention, and all other internati