MARTIN WICKS reflects on Labour’s housing policy in the wake of the party’s conference in Liverpool THE contradiction between Labour’s … MoreRead more…
We need 100,000 council homes a year, not “affordable homes”
Labour’s Housing Green Paper, Housing for the many, has a fundamental flaw at its heart. It says that a Labour … MoreRead more…
East End May Day Rally – Yiddish, Cockney & Bengali Culture mix of Labour Movement Politics & History
After we finished campaigning in our ward, my Labour & Co-operative colleague John Whitworth and I went to the “East End May Day Rally” in East Ham Working Mens Club. This was organised by the Bangladeshi Workers’ Council and the Morning Star.
We …Read more…
Lights! Camera! Revolution! – film from Russia and Cuba
I’ve written before about the role of Trades Union Councils in promoting (or should that be
fomenting) working class and left political culture. Another example is taking place this weekend in…Read more…
From Alexei to Jeremy, and much in between – Edinburgh Reviews 3 & 4
Both of my final compilation roundups of Edinburgh festival shows have now been published in the Morning Star. The third one – Sayle, Spoiler Alerts and Symphonies – can be found here. And the…Read more…
Radical Angles with a Cutting Edge – Edinburgh reviews 2
–> …And the second of the group reviews of both International and Fringe shows was published in the Morning Star on Saturday. It is available here. It covers reviews that I posted in my…Read more…
Rich pickings for the Culture Vulture – Edinburgh Festivals Preview
It seems like some time since I posted anything vaguely cultural here, but that is about to change!
Last Saturday our friends in the Morning Star printed my preview of the Fringe at this year’s…Read more…
Celtic Connections 3 – crossing borders
The first of my two articles reviewing this year’s Celtic Connections was in the Morning Star yesterday here. It dealt with two themes, the continuing connections between British and Irish music and…Read more…
Celtic Connections 2 – and Beyond
A selection of shorts re a number of shows that are not going to get onto my reviews in the Star (the first one of which is due in tomorrow’s paper (Thursday 2).
One thing that is already in…Read more…
An embarrassment of riches – Celtic Connections ’17 Preview
This is a preview piece for this year’s Celtic Connections, that was printed in the Morning Star on Thursday (19 Jan). The link to the article on line doesn’t seem to be working, so here (with a…Read more…
People on the Move – Edinburgh Festivals 3
My third compilation of reviews from the Edinburgh Festivals has been published in yesterday’s Morning Star. Covering a range of shows with a general theme of migration, it is a masterpiece of…Read more…
Songwriting Talents Old and New(ish). Edinburgh Festivals 2
My first compilation piece from Edinburgh is in the Morning Star today. It includes the Angel review in last Thursday’s blog, and also a review of Road – Jim Cartwright’s slice of Lancashire life…Read more…
After Wisconsin, can Sanders still win?
This article appears in today’s edition of the Morning Star. Bernie Sanders’ victory in the Wisconsin Democratic Primary this week is being spun by the mainstream media as “too little, too…Read more…
Reeling in the (Cuban) Years!
A little late (I was away at a conference when it was published) here is a link to my review of
the First Havana/Glasgow Film Festival that the Morning Star published last Thursday.
Conducta – Five…Read more…
Mrs Barbour’s Army – 100 years on!
As we approach November 17 – the centenary of the day the court case against 18 Glasgow women on Rent Strike was dropped – it is probably not surprising that the amount of references to Mary Barbour,…Read more…
Morning Star – Festival For All 1917-1987
Beware the spellchecker!… the real names of those Acts! – Edinburgh 2, Steel, Science and Beefheart
This weekend’s Morning Star has published three of my Edinburgh festival reviews edited into one article. It is here. It is a masterpiece of compilation and compaction, and I have the utmost respect…Read more…
#killthebill on social media
Social media reactions to our extremely well attended #killthebill event in London on 29 July 2015
30 July 2015
read moreRead more…
Portraying the Red Clydesiders – and young women of the East End!
A couple of events to draw your attention to today. Firstly an event slightly detached from its original slot in the Mayday celebrations – it was postponed from the original date of May 5 as that…Read more…
Prof Prem Sikka on ‘How to Defeat Austerity?’ Video now online
‘There was absolutely no need for anything to do with austerity. It is really a political project which has been carried out in the UK for the last 30 or 40 years. It has eroded the purchasing power…Read more…