Why the hell is the Tory Party still so popular?
When I woke up on Friday 13 December 2019 to a Tory Party majority of 80, I, like many people, knew it would be dire. However, I don’t think anyone envisioned quite how bad things would get. Johnson’s promise of...
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Education, Education, Education
It will have come as little surprise to many that the current Government is nasty. Indeed even columnists for the Times newspaper openly state that – ‘Tories are expected to be bastards — this is priced in’. Some who voted...
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Sociology in Action: The unfolding COVID crisis
The scale and rapidity of the global, national and local responses to the impact of COVID are daunting, making it risky to comment in real-time. It is difficult to grasp all the fast-moving implications for societies as the crisis develops....
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Election 2019
“McGovern made some stupid mistakes, but in context they seem almost frivolous compared to the things Richard Nixon does every day of his life, on purpose, as a matter of policy and a perfect expression of everything he stands for....
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Joker
May Contain Spoilers In the same week as World Mental Health Day (10th October) the blockbuster, from the DC Comics’ Batman series, “Joker” was number one in both the UK and US box offices. While the various Batman movies, and...
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Tory Leadership Blues
As Britain descends further into the dystopian nightmare that Brexit has become, the latest instalment of our journey from serious country to sick joke is the Tory leadership contest. That a country, that considers itself a democracy, can choose a...
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Brexit and the End of Empire
“There is no gold at the end of the Brexit rainbow” Rule Britannia: Brexit and the End of Empire, by Danny Dorling and Sally Tomlinson, Biteback, 344 pages As the clock ticks down to the UK leaving the European Union (EU)...
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22 July
On 22 July 2011, A right-wing neo-Nazi terrorist carried out two sequential atrocities, planting a bomb in central Oslo before travelling to a Workers’ Youth League summer camp on the island of Utøya with the intention of killing as many...
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NHS Privatisation and who really is Matt Hancock?
It was back in September 2013 that we penned a post for Cost of Living entitled “We need to talk about Jeremy”. Way back then we were blissfully unaware of the possibilities of Brexit or Trump. Our major concern was...
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Medical Cannabis and Marijuana
The War on Drugs: A New Era? The high profile case of Billy Caldwell, a 12-year-old boy with life-threatening seizures, has again raised questions about the legal status of marijuana. Billy has a form of epilepsy that causes uncontrollable and...
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The Mercy: Mental Health, Seafaring and Mythical Voyages
Mental Health, Seafaring and Mythical Voyages The recent UK cinema release of “The Mercy” revisits the tragic tale of Donald Crowhurst and his doomed entry into the Sunday Times Golden Globe Race. This was a non-stop, single-handed, round-the-world yacht race,...
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Climate Crisis, Denial and the World Burning