Today is the 6th of June 2020. Today is a day when, all over the world, thousands of people will come onto the streets in hundreds of protests, despite coronavirus, despite the risks to themselves, to shout that Black Lives Matter. Today is also the 76th anniversary of D-Day. Today…
Soon after Donald Trump was sworn in as US President, I wrote a piece entitled No, I Won’t Help You Build A Bridge, explaining my exact feelings on calls for creating unity with those who would stand aside and watch the deaths of people I love. To summarise — I…
Right now is a scary time to be a disabled person in the UK. After an election campaign which allowed many of us to cling to hope, however precarious, we have been left reeling by the result; despairing and furious by turns. I have allowed myself a precious few days…
Niccolò Machiavelli wrote Il Principe in the 1530s. In the centuries since, The Prince has become notorious as a guide to ruthlessness in politics, and Machiavelli’s name has become a byword for a person who will use any means necessary to win and keep power. Machiavellian: Adopting unscrupulous methods; duplicitous,…
In Europe in the early 1930s, fascism was fashionable. You could be forgiven for thinking that all of the really important people were doing it. Anyone who mattered was into fascism. In 1932, the politician Oswald Mosley spotted an opportunity and founded the British Union of Fascists. He modelled himself…
