If you own a smartphone, you’re almost certainly contributing to several big problems in the world. These include a negative environmental impact, the production of mountains of e-waste as perfectly…Read more…
Review: Four Thousand Weeks: Time and How to Use It, by Oliver Burkeman
Oliver Burkeman is a recovering “personal productivity” addict. I feel his pain. He’s a writer who knows his Pomodoro Method, his GTD, even his ‘First Things First”. And…Read more…
Review: A Line to Kill, by Anthony Horowitz
This book, the third in a series featuring the fictional detective Daniel Hawthorne, a Sherlockian consulting detective if there ever was one, and his very own Dr. Watson — Anthony Horowitz…Read more…
Hong Kong: Silence is not an option
When the question of trade unions in China would come up, some of us were fond of saying that there is an independent, democratic trade union movement in the country. It is called the Hong…Read more…
Review: Workers resistance against Nazi Germany at the International Labour Conference 1933, by Reiner Tosstorff
Every year in June, representatives of the world’s governments, employers and workers come together for the International Labour Conference in Geneva. This has been happening more or less since…Read more…
Review: Workers resistance against Nazi Germany at the International Labour Conference 1933, by Reiner Tosstorff
Every year in June, representatives of the world’s governments, employers and workers come together for the International Labour Conference in Geneva. This has been happening more or less since…Read more…
In 1933, the world’s trade unions forced Germany out of the ILO – let’s do the same today to Iran
The Islamic Republic of Iran is a clerical fascist regime. It is essentially no different from the fascist regimes we know from history – Mussolini’s Italy, Franco’s Spain and most infamously,…Read more…
Beyond refugees: What the Left needs to say and do about Afghanistan
Calls on Britain and other wealthy countries to take in Afghan refugees are absolutely correct. And those refugees should not be limited to people who worked alongside British soldiers and diplomats….Read more…
Review: A Slow Fire Burning, by Paula Hawkins
I really liked The Girl on the Train, Paula Hawkins’ first best-selling thriller, and approached this book with caution. One should always be prepared for disappointment following blockbuster…Read more…
Review: The Invisible Land, by Hubert Mingarelli
Hubert Mingarelli was a brilliant writer of short fiction and this is the third novel of his I read this year. His previous books, set during the Russian Civil War and the Second World War,…Read more…
Socialists in the age of Scylla and Charybdis
You will no doubt be familiar with the expression ‘between a rock and a hard place’. That phrase, apparently, has its origins in labour history. According to one online source, ‘the phrase originated…Read more…
Review: Super Human: The Bulletproof Plan to Age Backward and Maybe Even Live Forever, by Dave Asprey
Dave Asprey is famous (in some circles) as the guy who invented Bulletproof Coffee, which is both a concept and a business. A Silicon Valley entrepreneur, Asprey seems to be one of the first…Read more…
Review: Leopoldstadt, by Tom Stoppard
The problem with seeing Leopoldstadt – Tom Stoppard’s most recent and probably last play – is that so much is going on, there are so many characters on stage all at once, so many…Read more…
Review: Leopoldstadt, by Tom Stoppard
The problem with seeing Leopoldstadt – Tom Stoppard’s most recent and probably last play – is that so much is going on, there are so many characters on stage all at once, so many…Read more…
Review: The Splendid and the Vile: A Saga of Churchill, Family and Defiance During the Blitz, by Erik Larson
There are literally thousands of books about Churchill. Erik Larson’s unique selling point seems to be his focus on Churchill’s family life, and in particular his weekends away from…Read more…
Review: Rabbit Hole, by Mark Billingham
Mark Billingham has earned his reputation as one of Britain’s best crime writers due to his series featuring Tom Thorne, a detective serving with the Metropolitan Police. From time to time, he…Read more…
Review: The Cellist, by Daniel Silva
Gabriel Allon has gotten older since the last time I read a Daniel Silva novel. The legendary art restorer / assassin is now the head of the Mossad (not called the Mossad in the book)…Read more…
The BBC, Barry the Owl and the death of a union leader
Last Friday, the BBC News website ran a story with this headline: “A beloved owl who became a well-known resident in New York’s Central Park has died.” The story went on to say that “Barry…Read more…
Review: A Covert Life: Jay Lovestone: Communist, Anti-Communist, and Spymaster, by Ted Morgan
Jay Lovestone, who is largely forgotten today, led an extraordinary life – much of it in the shadows. He was one of the founders of the Communist Party in the US, and rose to become…Read more…
Review: Into the Drowning Deep, by Mira Grant
Mermaids are lovely, aren’t they? I’m thinking the 1989 Walt Disney cartoon or Daryl Hannah in the 1984 comedy ‘Splash’. Well, Mira Grant, the author of staggering number of…Read more…