Offence

A defence of offence In my first year of university, I saw the stand-up comedian Jerry Sadowitz. He started his routine as follows: ‘Nelson Mandela: cunt!’. This immediately generated shouting and heckling to which he replied ‘don’t drink on an empty head’ before finishing the line as best he could against the noise ‘he [Mandela] […]

A World for the Many not the Few? Modesty, policy, and the dangers of the global-liberal consensus.

On Monday 26th March, the Labour Party launched its new policy paper on international development: A World for the Many not the Few. The paper aims to set out a radical and revitalised development strategy for the British government, based in five priority aims: a fairer global economy; a global movement for public services; a […]

Rage against the machine

The notion of a pension fund deficit is slippery. Currently, the USS pension scheme is not in deficit: in 2017, assets generated £2bn income and paid out £1.8bn to existing pensioners. This on the basis of a massive £60bn asset base. But, evaluations of the fund’s financial sustainability do not make a simple balance of […]

A tale of two (univer)cities

Once upon a time, there were two universities: The University of Excellence, and Knowledge University. Each one sat on a hill on different sides of the city.

Spoilers Throughout: Constructing the agonies of Black Panther

Black Panther is an OK film. It’s not as good as Thor Ragnarok. Thor’s plotline is a bit more stable; the characters are more distinct; the script is a little more deft with the usual Marvel mixture of peril and humour. But, that’s not the point is it? Or is it?

Civilisation

When carrying out fieldwork in Rwanda, there was a bar in Kigali I’d go to in the evenings. I was always the only white person there and I would sit outside with some nice cold beers, a cigarillo, and a book getting nicely toasted. On one occasion, a big air-conditioned vehicle drove up, stopped, and […]

Socialism 2049

The state we are in Since the early 1970s – and even then only for quite small spaces and for some people for some periods – it is difficult to portray capitalism as offering an optimistic future for humanity. Growth has been weak and unstable, there have been many economic crises, wages have been stagnant […]