Category / General / Politics / Uncategorized
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![Image: Jack Taylor/Getty Images]()
Why I’m No Longer Talking to Brexiters About Brexit
I did something unusual this week. I saw something wrong, stupid and annoying online and didn’t get into a fight with the person who said it. It’s something I’ve found myself doing more and more lately, and it becomes a little easier each time, although it never feels completely natural. Wanting to correct misinformation or…
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Neither Am I
For years, I was the living embodiment of that classic Private Eye cartoon by (I think) Barry Fantoni: Two men. One says: ‘I’m writing a book’. The other replies: ‘Neither am I.’ The Book lived in my head as a fantastic possibility. I could do it any time, and it would be amazing. Any time.…
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A Name For What You Lose
‘Vote Corbyn, lose Scotland.’ That was the big scary warning from clodhopping would-be provocateur Toby Young on Twitter this week. While it might play well with the Tobester’s target audience of enthusiastically gullible bullshit-swallowers, it brought something else to mind for me: The music of Scritti Politti. More specifically, this pungent lyrical nugget from ‘The…
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From No to Yes
In 2014, I voted No to Scottish Independence. Given a chance at IndyRef2, I’d vote Yes in a heartbeat. I wasn’t a unionist then, and I’m not a nationalist now. My basic beliefs – in fairness, decency and community – haven’t changed, so what did? Basically … Brexit. Scotland has repeatedly said no to leaving…
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Britflop
I recently rediscovered a batch of old files from my first PC, dating back to the mid-to-late nineties, crammed full of old music reviews, interviews and oddities. It’s an interesting time capsule of how I felt at the time about music many of us have been living with (sometimes unwillingly) for decades now. FROM…
