General Politics

Sometimes I just need a space to rant about the Tories. Here it is! Enjoy.

I've not always been interested in politics. In fact, I made a point of saying how uninterested I was in politics all through secondary school, as if it was a unique personality trait.

What a difference a few years makes.

Ever since I read Naomi Klein's The Shock Doctrine in 2019, I've been left-wing. If there's any book that'll radicalise you from apathy about politics, I can't imagine many better than Klein's shocking account of neoliberalism. It did also help that I turned 18 that year, old enough to vote for the first time in an election between Jeremy Corbyn and Boris Johnson.

Below is a selection of blogs on various political topics - from arts funding to lockdown dancing. Most of it is satirical in tone, and not all of it is that great. A lot of these are more for my own benefit than anyone else's, and I think that's how they read.

Nonetheless, here's some rants:

Cancel All Non-Vegans - 16/11/2023

I Don't Know Enough - A Dialogue - 10/10/2023

They're Partying, and We're Not Invited - 09/12/2021

No Control in the 21st Century - 20/03/2021

Truth is Dead. Long Live Truth! - 12/11/2020

Rishi Sunak: Saving Artists From Themselves - 10/10/2020

Introducing Spacebook: Facebook's New Programme for Interdimensional Travel - 24/08/2020

Metaphors are not Heroes (And Similes know Exactly what this New Culture of 'Essential Wording' Worship Looks Like) - 27/07/2020

Comments

Things Got Bitter

Stephen Christopher Yaxley-Lennon is sunbathing in Cyprus. Once invited to address the Oxford Union , the millionaire (who now goes by the name 'Tommy Robinson') is lounging in a five-star hotel, scrolling through his phone, sending messages to thousands of ardent followers. He had fled the UK after breaching a court order, after losing a libel battle in 2021. This wealthy, powerful, criminal terrorist, fleeing supposed political persecution in his home country in order to reap the benefits of a safer place abroad, is a figurehead of the anti-Muslim violence currently burning across the UK. He doesn't speak the local language, he's got a history of criminally stalking and harassing a woman , assaulting a police officer, and his libel case was against a 15 year-old. Naturally, this man, and all his followers, believe that powerful foreign terrorists are a great danger to our children, and that the best way to protect women is to close borders. Were the government of Cyp...

Things Can Only Get Bitter

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, ...

Finally, a President with Some Conviction(s)!

It should go without saying: this election result is really bad, actually. Kamala Harris, proud supporter of ongoing genocide though she may be, enthusiastic participant in the police state and generally vapid vessel for status-quo Democratic complacency though she may be... she's not a rapist with an endorsement from the KKK . In fact, her entire campaign, based stupidly, fatally, on the one selling point - "I'm not Trump" - does at least highlight the raw fact that Trump is indeed a particularly repulsive bit of bile for the American electorate to spew up into the blood-soaked walls of the "White House". Those who voted for Harris as a means to avoid the full-blown meltdown of democratic order Trump will inevitably unleash are not, actually, all terrible people who don't care a jot for the lives of Palestinians - many will be principled and active organisers against Israel who simply fear for what will happen to trans people, migrants, all women in Am...

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