politics
Quiet stroll
John, Gianni and I joined a couple of friends in a quiet stroll through Manchester city centre yesterday. By “a couple of friends”, I mean upwards of 20,000 and by “quiet”, I mean we had ringing in our ears for about an hour afterwards. It was a good day though. John took photos with a [...]
Recycle This!
John and I have a new little project. It’s called “How can I recycle this?” – http://www.recyclethis.co.uk. It’s a community-driven site, coming up with creative and fun ways to reuse and recycle various bits and bobs from around the home and garden. Each week, there will also be a green dilemma to discuss because we [...]
Flowers
I grew up in a house filled with flowers and greenery: there were dozens and dozens of plants around the place and as far as I can remember, fresh flowers of some description around the house each week. For a while, my mum worked in a florists and my dad has always been a keen [...]
Six people arrested then released
“Police hunt three over PC killing” “Five men, all Somali, and a woman were arrested in London over the weekend and brought to police stations in West Yorkshire but have all now been released.” The men have been released so why does it matter that they’re Somali? Could it be that emphasising their nationality/race allows [...]
Be Nicer, Please
I marched against the BNP this morning. Well, when I say marched, I mean I stood around in the cold for about four hours and yelled “nazi scum” several hundred times but saying “marched” is so much neater. The demo was organised by Unite against Fascism and Yorkshire and Humberside TUC to counter the support [...]
Post-1945 British history: two books
By coincidence, I’ve read two books on about British social history since 1945 back to back recently. (Actually, I read the excellent “The Lovely Bones” by Alice Sebold in between but I was ill and got through it in less than a day so it didn’t really feel like a long break between the other [...]