Alternate movies

I’ve just come across an article written by Fintan O’Toole for the Irish Times where he posits that Trial runs for fascism are in full flow. Now I’m sure Mr O’Toole is probably far better informed than me and has spent far more time than me considering such matters. He certainly carries on the narrative popular amongst the left that the sky is falling and that any day now there’ll be jack boots kicking in doors. From pretty much everything Trump does to the Brexit vote is all part of a global plan to quietly usher in a new Fascist … Continue reading

An open letter to Labour supporters

Hi, I’m afraid it’s time we had a talk. I’ve been concerned about the anti-Semitic elements within and around the Labour party for a while now, but recent events have shown the problem to be much worse than I imagined. I’ve listened to what your party has said about wanting a “kinder gentler politics” and not tolerating bigotry, and yet the more this has been said the worse the problem seems to have got. I’m reminded of some of the things some of you have said about other parties in the past, how that if a party didn’t have a … Continue reading

Consent and respect matter more than numbers

There has of late been a lot of talk about rising crime, particularly violent crime, with the predictable cries that it’s all due to insufficient police numbers. Now it may well be that the police force is under manned, or possibly that it’s got too many of the wrong people doing the wrong things. However it occurs to me that to a great extent the absolute numbers of police really doesn’t matter. By and large the number of people employed in the police force doesn’t have any direct impact on the amount of crime committed. Much like ticket inspectors don’t … Continue reading