At the time of writing (15:47) UKIP has won 78 seats and is averaging 25% of the vote in the wards where it is standing. That is quite something. Not only is it making the Tories look stupid and the Liberal Democrats look irrelevant, it makes Labour look like they haven’t the nous to be […]
The fight against Thatcherism must go on
Apr 9th, 2013 by Carl Packman.Yesterday, at 12.02, the anarchist Ian Bone wrote on his blog “Thatcher died this morning”. Moments after it hit Twitter and Facebook, though, as always, it was taken with a pinch of salt. That was until the BBC and Sky broke the news on its airwaves – the former Prime Minister had died, this was […]
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Can you be a fascist, Paolo Di Canio, without being a racist?
Apr 2nd, 2013 by Carl Packman.A lot has been made of Sunderland Football Club’s new manager Paolo Di Canio’s previous comments and actions, that have been expressly fascist in nature. The accusations, that Di Canio now call “ridiculous and pathetic”, include giving roman salutes to A.S. Roma fans (who are known to have a wide Jewish following), a recorded interview […]
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Ken Livingstone will stand for Brent Central in the 2015 election
Apr 1st, 2013 by Carl Packman.Update (12:00): Ken Livingstone is not really the Brent Central candidate – this was an April Fools. The man, the legend, who first became an MP in Brent East from 1987 to 2001, has broken his vow never to enter an election again after the Brent Central Labour Party made an eleventh hour call to […]
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Karl Marx for Today
Mar 14th, 2013 by Carl Packman.On this very day, 130 years ago, Karl Marx died in his house in Chalk Farm Road, London. Shortly after the death of Jenny Marx, his wife, in late 1881, Marx developed a catarrh, making him very ill for at least the final 15 months of his life. What eventually came to kill the old […]
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Can David Cameron ignore the Right of his party for much longer?
Mar 12th, 2013 by Carl Packman.A new set of results from a Guardian/ICM poll has found that the Conservatives would be more appealing to the electorate if they took more hardline positions on social affairs, which will come as a great disappointment both to the political left, as well as loyalists to David Cameron who take a more liberal stance […]
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On Eastleigh, or the return of the right wing protest vote
Mar 1st, 2013 by Carl Packman.David Cameron, before Michael Gove announced that his brand of liberal Conservatism was not for turning, has been heard saying that the way in which to look at the Eastleigh by-election results is as a protest vote. With this much he is right, but perhaps not in the way he imagines. Firstly it should be […]
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Remembering ‘The Feminine Mystique’ today
Feb 19th, 2013 by Carl Packman.On the 19 February 1963, a book was published that has since been credited with providing the spark for second-wave feminism in the United States. The Feminine Mystique, by Betty Friedan, highlighted what she called “the problem with no name” – that is the unhappiness of women in the 1950s and early 1960s. Why did it […]
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How relevant is Kropotkin today?
Feb 8th, 2013 by Carl Packman.I recall a point in my youth when I took to the streets of London in celebration of May Day. Once the day had started to settle and the Trots entered the pubs, the anarchists started to congregate in the middle of Trafalgar Square. One very young boy mounted a statue in the square and […]
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On the “Connected Nation”: Why Ed Miliband’s speech was on message
Dec 14th, 2012 by Carl Packman.There has been a lot of chat about Ed Miliband’s speech this morning on the social media networks by people who have not read through or heard the speech, so now I’ve read through the transcript I feel in a better place to add comment. Firstly, were this really dog whistle politics designed to please […]
