Left voices, unfiltered, unedited, Ungagged.
Apart from moaning and complaining about politics, I spend a lot of my time at my day job preparing Chinese youngsters for future exams (and life in general). I’m a primary school teacher at a foreign language school in Xiamen, on the South East coast of China. As you would imagine, there are some interesting […]
“We have a responsibility as a nation to build a better tomorrow for our children.” Where have all the children gone? Where are the separate briefings that concentrate solely on the impact of Coronavirus and the lockdown on the nation’s children? They do get a passing mention occasionally thanking them for their patience and acknowledging […]
“Over the next three years, we must look at that NHS and what is left of our welfare state , and ensure it comes out of this nightmare stronger.” I loathe the propaganda around WW2. It really should be a subject of study. When did it start? I remember the 50th Anniversary. It was at […]
Remembered as youthful and active. Dismissed by a brutally dishonest and cynical Tory regime as collateral damage. This is a short piece to recognise the sacrifice of a generation. It cannot be done without reference to the hypocrisy of a government, with the consent of media and state broadcasting, in its failure to recognise that […]
Browsing social media recently I came across one blogger who claimed that Covid-19 will be America’s Chernobyl. That seems a bit like hyperbole. Chernobyl, as history records, became a central part of Gorbachev’s Glasnost campaign which eventually led to the dissolution of the Soviet Union (helped of course by the industrial level of corruption among […]
The Walking Dead tells the story of a group of survivors in a post-apocalypse world. It’s one of an increasing number of graphic novels that has grown beyond cult fandom into mainstream popularity, having been adapted for a successful TV show about 10 years ago. The apocalypse in question, as it transpires, is a virus […]
“Scottish independence is a progressive movement, not an apology nor a distraction” Movements don’t stand still. It’s in the name. It will undoubtedly be some time before we see massive shoulder to shoulder AOUB marches and rallies, saltires flying in the wind, or even drooping in the rain. Many will rejoice at that thought, but […]
These days it feels like every app on my phone has some Covid-19 related content. One of them has a list of all the rich and famous who’ve fallen victim to the virus – movie stars, sports people, politicians. I’ve seen the related conversations on social media, where people debate who the most famous victim […]
You hardly have to join many dots to understand that the policy of the British government was never not herd immunity. But the fact that it still is ‘targeted herd immunity’, despite and even including the lockdown measures, seems to be less understood. Rather than considering the lockdown as a complete u-turn from the British […]
Indian novelist and activist Arundhati Roy penned an article in the Financial Times last week on the global effects of the coronavirus pandemic. Many writers have offered ideas on this topic, but Roy’s stood out as some of the most prescient speculation on the new groove of a post-COVID world: “Our minds are still racing […]