Matt Gets Political

On Grenfell Tower: Or, why everything about this is political. In the wake of tragedies, such as the Grenfell Tower Fire, there will be inevitably be people demanding that it not be politicised. Or, to put it a different way, those who claim that by asking questions about how something happened, asking what the conditions that preceded the event where and then to make the point that had certain conditions not existed the tragedy would not have taken place, is to make illegitimate political capital off of the backs of victims of the event in question. It is difficult to think of a circumstance where this view would ever be correct. A terrorist attack is a political event, a flood that destroys homes is a political event, and a fire in a high rise flat in a working class area is unquestionably a political event - especially if as it appears that fire was an avoidable result of deliberate policies persued. As well as a result of the lack of representation that the residents of th...

I just appeared on a podcast discussing the election, the Con-DUP alliance, why pundits wrongly predicted the results and roughly what next. As well as what the result means for Anarchists - which is going to apply to about two people I know, but still - go and check it out and leave nasty comments and shit. It's all clicks init'. FIN.

#GE2017: What happened to the Tories and what next for Labour? Context Cast your mind back to April 19th 2017, the day that Theresa May announced that a general election was to be held on June 8th. The mood on the left was despondent at this announcement - to say the least. The reason being that, at the time Theresa May was enjoying almost unprecedented personal approval ratings. The Conservative Party was leagues ahead of the Labour party in opinion polls - upto twenty-five points ahead depending on which polling agency you're inclined to trust the most. This was set against a backdrop of a wide-spread perception amongst the press that Jeremy Corbyn was unelectable, a self confirming narrative, but one that was being confirmed none the less in the opinion polling. There was a widespread feeling that Labour was walking itself into an electoral disaster, after which the party would split, effectively ending their viability as a mainstream party. In the two weeks followin...

The Simpsons Gets Political - SE01 E07 - The Call of the Simpsons He's an experienced woodsman y'know. Script synopsis:  Homer, envious of Ned Flanders's new motor home, goes to Bob's RV Round-up to buy one of his own, but because of his poor credit rating, he is only qualified for a smaller dilapidated one, much to his family's disgust. Thrilled with the new RV, Homer takes his family on an excursion. Driving on remote back roads and ignoring Marge's suggestion to turn back on the main road, the Simpsons find themselves teetering over a precipice. The family escapes the RV before it plummets over the cliff, leaving themselves stranded in the wilderness. Issue raised: Masculinity. Homer seems to be of the belief that as a man he needs to exaggerate his capacity in classically masculine pursuits - such as being a woodsman, and does not wish to consult with his wife on the salesman insistence that if he needs to there is something wrong with the world. ...

Programmes have been briefly interrupted. Do not readjust your set. Do not attempt conversation. Do not attempt intimate relations, as years of TV radiation have left your genitals withered and useless. I am on hiatus to focus on end-of-year essays for my Masters and canvassing for the UK General Election - I'm voting Labour if you're interested:  - Next Simpsons post June 11th 2017     - Next general post June 14th 2017

How would the press react to an announcement that the Conservatives intended to slaughter all kittens? How could you?! You monster! In the wake of the Conservative Party announcing they wished to punish dementia sufferers by seizing their assets to pay for care, and sections of the press falling over itself to attempt to justify this policy I imagine its reaction to an announcement of a policy of murdering kittens, and the Guardians, but just because it's fun to rag on the Guardian - it is still my favourite newspaper: The Economist would still run an op-ed about what a master stroke it was compared to Labours insane policies of investing in educating the young, rather than instruments with which to club kittens. They will knowingly explain that any policy that didn't involve the wholesale slaughtering of feline infants would surely mean an increase in inflation - although never bothering to explain why, but providing a metaphor that led one to suspect the policy wi...

On why punk was never punk, and grime is punk as fuck Trim getting totes emosh' Every so often a former member of the Sex Pistols says something more fitting of a middle aged home counties man six bitters deep stumbling over his words and then subsequently over a bar stool - making you listen to his boring views about shit that he reckons you find offensive but actually you just find tedious. All this before he goes home and fails to have disappointing intercourse with the wife that no longer loves him and wonders if she ever did - than of a representative of a radical oeuvre in music. At these points there is a chorus that rings out "Punk is dead!" or in the era of social media optimised head-lines "Is punk dead? Don't buy another album before you read the SHOCKING thing that former SEX PISTOL John Lydon said about FARAGE,  BREXIT and TRUMP"(1). Spoiler alert: He said he liked them and wanted to be their friend. Now, the extent to which the ...