I’ve never listened to Linkin Park, or Korn for that matter, and long and varied as I hope my life’ll be I hold out zero desire to experience either band in the course of it. So when I touch on Chester Bennington’s suicide and the reaction to it here I’m […]
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During my time in Nepal (and more on that later, perhaps) I found myself in a writing slump. Not a bad one, I’ve finished a new novel which I’m currently editing to the point of literary perfection, but the sort of lull that comes when you’ve spent a while living […]
On Grenfell Tower – Don’t think there’s much to be said about the fire, not by me anyway. My thoughts are with those who’ve lost their homes, friends and families and I hope that more have survived than are expected to, bad as it looks now. As for what’s to […]
I was reading the other day about the militias that go down to the border and play soldier in the sand dunes. A mix between racism, paranoia, overdone patriotism, dressing up and just harassing random brown people – imagining that they’re all cartel bosses and hitmen. Border agency and police […]
Politics, at the moment, is defined by division. In the US Trump and Clinton are coming to represent to antagonistic portions of a polarised society, with Sanders as a theoretically retired figurehead for a third faction which is in opposition to the other two, even if some of them have […]
I’ve had a few friends over the years who’ve fallen prey to the UK Border Agency. I’ve seen them take people away for good and I’ve seen people successfully appeal, I’ve known people who’ve spent years evading them too. It’s always an unequal struggle though. And it’s seldom a question of […]
It’s a dramatic experience supporting Jeremy Corbyn. One day you’re a Stalinist thug, the next a near-fascist misogynist, the next a naive idealist, then you’re backing an ineffectual old man, or a sinister dictator, or a street fighting gangster – every day is a lucky dip of contradictory images. Sure, […]
I’m not sure that there’s much point in trying to write about the political landscape around the Labour Party at the moment. Sure, by the time I reach the end of this sentence Angela Eagle could have been found jamming an ice pick into Jeremy Corbyn while Hillary Benn launches […]
Well, it’s done. The Chilcot Report is out there and, as of yet, no one’s actually read it properly because it’s stupidly long and, no doubt, as dense as the screaming chaos of the voices in Tony Blair’s head. Early signs suggest that it’s fairly damning, if not personally indicting […]
I spent a few hours at the Tate Modern the other day. My knowledge of art is, at best, completely non-existent. I know what I like and, in general, I’m willing to give the rest the benefit of the doubt, assuming it’s got some sense of purpose or emotion behind […]