Lenni Brenner: Cancer Schmancer! - Here's Lenni Brenner in a recent interview: I got it from Louis Proyect's site.

Faculty of Public Health Publish Own Risk Register.. - Faculty of Public Health Publish Own Risk Register #SaveOurNHS http://t.co/fNyzcdFC Please Tweet!

Provincial Projection… - While I’m giving qualified praise to provincialism, Daniel Larison offers this quote from George Kennan’s Russia Leaves the War… In both cases, the princip...

Road privatisation: is it a such bad thing? -

Open All Hours - The BBC Reports that...Sunday trading laws are expected to be suspended by the government on eight weekends from 22 July during the Olympics and Paralympics....

Actual irony spotted in the wild - So there is some land behind where I live which local residents have fought long and hard to keep clear. The council want to put a block of flats there and...

Vigils against the NHS Bill across the UK - This Monday 19 March at 8pm, there will be holding a series of coordinated NHS Vigils, across the UK to draw attention to the importance of halting the Tor...

Bid for an Oxford United shirt and help disabled children - The Oxford Times reports: Charlotte Nott and her family will be special guests at today’s Oxford United home game against Rotherham. The team will be wear...

Taleb in 30 minutes - Nassim Taleb, the Lebanese-American academic whom we interviewed in The Spectator last month, is the subject of a Radio Four profile by The Economist's J...

A Moomin mother’s day - It probably says something about the mature attitude I bring to the business of parenting that my favourite fictional mother is in a children’s book, but t...

Two cities - Athens and Ely. - Looking forward to my trip to Ingerlund before the end of March and wondering if I will have time to hire a car and motor around Ely? I have more to do tha...

Know your rights: Newham Monitoring Project launch stop and search hotline during the Olympics - The Newham Monitoring Project (NMP) have launched a stop and search hotline as part of their response to this summer’s Olympic Games. Between July and Augu...

The Festival of Dangerous Ideas - a radical departure - I'm in London this weekend. Yesterday I was at the *Festival of Dangerous Ideas*, principally organised by Counterfire and also involving Verso Books and S...

Thuggery and machine guns at the Save Our NHS demo - You might not know that yesterday there was a demonstration in London against the privatisation of the NHS. If you don't know that, you definitely won't k...

Hilda Murrell; Victim of a privatisation that went wrong?. - CALL me a "conspiracy theorist" if you like, but I have never felt comfortable with the official explanation of the death of Hilda Murrell. Too many gaps ...

New review: The Princess and the Frog - Back in 1975, in the autumn edition of Screen magazine, the article was published that became the cornerstone of the strand of (feminist and not only) film t...

on Malay emigration and evolution - *Ang:* I'd like to bring you the attention of this article about the Malays having higher rate of emigration relative to population demographics. ...

Two centuries for India at Old Trafford - This is a cricket memory in two parts: the first part I saw with my own eyes; the second part I didn't see, but you will soon understand why I include it her...

Christopher de Bellaigue and his Ahmaghieh Supporter in the Frontline Club Audience - This is a cross post by Potkin I went along to a Frontline Club meeting at the Royal Institute last night. The panelists were Ran Gidor, the Minister-Couns...

Cheltenham 2012 and a classic Gold Cup - What a four days it’s been. There were some great races at Cheltenham this week, but for me the highlight was Friday’s Gold Cup- one of the most exciting...

Re-Take the Bastille! Front de Gauche Demonstrates Today. - 18 mars, reprenons la Bastille, jour J. Venus de toute la France, des dizaines de milliers de personnes sont attendues à la marche pour une VIe Républiqu...

Escaping from the tyranny of Mild - What odd weather we had the past couple of weeks. Nothing to worry about, though, so please continue driving and flying as if we weren’t already past peak ...

Blogger and Disqus - Google have made a 'helpful' change to the settings for blogs, so that the URL of each site automatically converts to .blogspot.co.uk, .blogspot.co.nz, .bl...

Local v Open Government - ** *A number of readers from North Lanarkshire have been in touch to say the council is awash with stories and rumours - about the council's behaviour on e...

BREAK-IN LINK TO MILIBAND AND ‘THE PHAROAH OF HULL’ PHAROAHGATE! - Here’s RED ED getting out of Hull City chairman’s roller to attend a match – at the same time he said he was ‘too ill’ to attend a Save the NHS rally in t...

Not before time a detailed overview of the Lockerbie bomb case. - Below Morag Kerr of the Justice for Megrahi Committee has put together a detailed overview of the Lockerbie case. It was commissioned by the Scottish Re...

I woke up this morning - England and Scotland - One of the great blues opening lines has always been “*Woke up this morning*…”, and it almost became a cliché of the blues lyric. I woke up this morning,...

Scotlands water - Forget oil ... It is water the world wants more than anything else. Last week the Environment Agency warned parts of England were facing a drought this yea...

How can the Budget help address our investment shortfall? - As the TUC’s Budget Submission set out earlier [...]

The Fourth Most Unequal Country in the Developed World - The Fourth Most Unequal Country in the Developed World Gerry Hassan The Scotsman, March 17th 2012 One of the most important influences shaping the coming d...

Failure of a lobby - Sherwood Rowland, one of the scientists responsible for discovering that CFCs were destroying the ozone layer and fixing the problem, has died. Realclimate...

Political Intrigue and Moving Image - To the Philip Road Centre! …on Saturday evening for the timely screening of the Ides of March with Wivenhoe Moving Image. With the various political factio...

Channel4′s Disgusting New Adverts - Just when you thought that Channel4′s advertising policy couldn’t get any worse, they start putting up billboards like this. No doubt they believe that dis...

Seabiscuit? - "We're right on their heels." Somebody's having fun! As elections should be.

VIDEO: The True Face of what David Cameron and his Fellow Warmongers Supported - Read on: War Crimes: http://eotp.org/tag/war-crimes/ State Crime: http://eotp.org/tag/state-crime/ The “British” Government’s War on the British Army: h...

Parecomic - By Mike Small From Alan Grant (Batman), to Mark Millar (Kick-Ass), Frank Quitely (New X-Men) and Grant Morrison (St Swithin’s Day) Scotland has had a major...

This is why we fight. -

Rural reflections. - I must admit to being no great lover of gastropubs Far too many good boozers, especially in country districts, have been turned into restaurants in all but...

Happy (Very Late) St. Davids Day - Well it was St.David's day when I started writing this, and its now St. Patrick's day so I guess those three tags are doubly valid now. I hope those who ...

This American Life retracts Mike Daisey's China labour story - If only I'd known this show may contain nuts. Mike Daisey's monologue, The Agony and the Ecstasy of Steve Jobs, a powerful exposé about labour abuses at t...

Scrapbook’s top five: our most popular posts this week - Our Top Five most clicked stories of the last seven days were: Louise Mensch sets up company with Luke “statement to follow” Bozier Oxford College offers O...

- *Watch your self Woodpecker, it's my turn for a nibble.* [image: Posted by Picasa]

What the US Republicans think of women - The US Republican Party, in their own words:

More on "Leanne Wins". - The actual number of votes in the Plaid Election are intresting In the first round of voting, Leanne Wood won 2,879 (47.66% ) votes to Elin Jones's 1,884 3...

50p income tax? The rich should count their blessings - OF COURSE the 50p top rate of income tax is more important for its symbolism than its efficacy. The super-rich should stop griping and thank their lucky st...

In the age of distraction, we need physical books more than ever - The best way to listen to the podcast is to subscribe via iTunes by clicking here. Alternatively, you can use this link for other podcasting programs. If t...

When ‘Rape Humour’ can be justified - For a while, I've been pondering over writing a post on the subject of rape humour and when it can and cannot be justified. I got as far as digging out a...

Climate Change: who pays the price? - As Climate Week invites us to ‘help create a sustainable future’, JRF is looking at climate change and sustainability from a social point of view. Extreme ...

Death By Analysis by Gillian Slovo (The Women's Press Crime 1986) - Sam gave a long sigh. He put his face in his hands and groaned. 'Nothing happened. Absolutely nothing. Unless you count the fact that one of my students ...

Class War Front Pages - One of the great things about Class War the newspaper was its front covers. They made you think, made you laugh and even managed to sometimes capture the spi...

For attitudes towards rape to change, society needs to drop its sexual double standard - One of the most shocking statistics to come out of a recent Mumsnet survey on rape was the astonishing number of victims who felt that society viewed them...

The End of History? - Last year, 159 secondary schools failed to enter a single pupil for GCSE History. Academic debate has focussed on how best to stem the decline of history ...

Bishop admits to me that the bible is lies! - Found this lovely clip someone has cut and put up on the internet from The Big Questions. It's more recent than "the bitchslap" but I think it's interestin...

Palestinians in Israel: Segregation, Discrimination and Democracy - A tightly-argued book on the oppression of Palestinians living in Israel reveals the imperialist background of the Israeli style of apartheid, argues Joe G...

Three books I’ve read - The other day I wrote about what I'd been watching. Here are three things I've read recently. 1Q84 (Haruki Murakami) It's a long, long love story with an e...

Community squatting comes to Swansea - In the space of a month, Swansea saw three subsequent squats taken by a community squatting group. With a generally supportive public, surprised authoritie...

Umrah 2012 - LM as you may know has just returned from Umrah and over the coming weeks will be explaining my experience while in Mecca and Medina. However, the first th...

Red Rag - Osborne outdoes Brown again. - Red Rag - If anything, Gideon Osborne is consistent. Not only has he managed to beat Gordon Brown on the number of unemployed he can muster together, eh,...

Europe: the path to growth - An unpublished report by EU commissioners on the Greek Troika team reckons that Greece will need to make further cuts of €12bn on top of those already plan...

Guest Post: New Fiscal Treaty helps you lose social & democratic rights... Guaranteed! - *"How can you stand there with a straight face and talk about growth, jobs, and stability – when you are attempting to institutionalise synchronised au...

Camerawoman confronts Guido Fawkes bloggers - A female journalist this morning confronted bloggers Paul Staines and Harry Cole of the Guido Fawkes blog after they rushed into a crowd at a mayoral cam...

Camrastan - The *clock struck eleven *yet again as Jethro Gill shouldered his way into the British Film Institute. It's now called Old Peculiar's Pelicular Panopticon...

Church 0 Swansea City 1 - This is the front page of today's South Wales Evening Post which I picked up this morning. I quote the first few paragraphs in full. 'A Swansea City-mad ...

Can you 'learn' how to be an entrepreneur? - Somebody asked me if it’s possible for anyone to learn how to be an entrepreneur. He could have, of course, asked: it is possible for anyone to learn how t...

Feminism Enabled Gay Marriage - Feminism enabled gay marriage, and that’s a good thing. Last week we heard the Catholic bishops parroting the tired old line about marriage being “between ...

Labour in Northern Ireland 2012 AGM - A crowd of around 50 gathered in the Malone Lodge Hotel for the Labour’s AGM on Saturday. Labour in NI doesn’t yet have an annual conference as such, as ou...

Haven’t we been here before – Government backed mortgages - Reading the excitement about the Governments new scheme to enable homebuyers to have a 95% or even 100% mortgages shows just how eager people are to see th...

Doonesbury on abortion - [image: Doonesbury on abortion] This Doonesbury cartoon is causing some American newspapers either not to run the series, or to move them to the op-ed page...

'Free' market myths no.3: entrepreneurs create wealth - It seems that wherever you go these days you are subjected to neoliberal propaganda. The media is full of 'free' market pundits endlessly repeating the mantr...

Britain's railway madness: ConDem Government wants even higher train fares at peak times - The Daily Mail reports: *Commuters travelling at the busiest times face paying super-peak fares in the biggest rail shake-up for a decade. Train companies...

Peak Phosphorus - Many have heard the expression "peak oil", the point here oil reserves begin to decline. Less well known is "peak phosphorus". Our dwindling supply of phos...

Banksy on Advertising - I saw the words originally on David Allen Greens’ old Jack of Kent blog (don’t forget to check David’s new blog) and now, via to Tim, here is the video. I ...

The Weeks Comics: Avengers the Children’s Crusade - I… am already bored with ‘one to keep, one to drop.’ Being negative about comics is boring, y’all. Howsabout I just talk about the week’s highlight each ...

Involuntary Witness - I have just finished reading Gianrico Carofiglio's thoughtful first novel Involuntary Witness, translated from the Italian by Patrick Creagh. It is a thoug...

The Garden of Eden complex - I was chatting on Facebook with a friend about relationships (I've had yet another disastrous friendship situation emerge recently!) and this segued into t...

In These Times - The latest blacklisting revelations have made it across to America where the radical magazine In These Times carries a report by Michelle Chen. For years, th...

Yakkety-Yak. Tracked Talk Back - Here's a thing. I went to Potlatch, a Typepad blog,  and was mildly interested in this article and wanted to comment. I've commented there before, but only ...

Farewell and a Few Final Words - Several followers of this blog have emailed me to ask why I haven't posted for a while. The truth is I no longer work in the social care or youth sector. In ...

JUST SAY NO - Anyone who watched the BBC Police Drama “Ashes to Ashes” will understand my concern that as a whole nation we may have been somehow transported back in ti...

The Anti-Empire Report: Wikileaks revelations - *Below is a partial re-post of an essay by William Blum (with permission)* Original - The Anti-Empire Report. March 5th, 2012 Host website: killinghope.org...

'I want my day in court' - Chicago Law and Economics, as pioneered by Richard Posner and others, represents one of the most extensive and successful efforts to replace moral and politi...

Cornwall mourns shock departure - I've decided to take a break from blogging for a bit. Have a good St Piran's Day! *Signs of a hasty exit **CZ hitches a ride to the station * *and waits...

Is there statistical evidence of fraud in the Russian election data? - James Ball sent me the data for the Russian election vote counts this morning and asked me to test whether it deviates from Benford’s law, a test that can ...

FAO: John Bercow, Re: Nadine Dorries is not a reasonable person (and you damn well know it) - The following is for the attention of John Bercow, the Speaker of the House of Commons, in reply to his initial response to the allegation that I will repe...

Back on the bike - Recently I have begun cycling again. In my early-to-mid 20's I was an avid and passionate mountain biker. I rode most evenings, and I would be out on the...

David Cameron, Rebekah, Raisa - But Who's Mucking Out The Stables - (Click to enlarge cartoon) So our multi millionaire old Etonian prime minister has finally admitted the truth that he did ride Sun Editor's. Rebekah Bro...

- *The Prime Minister riding a horse loaned by the Metropolitan Police to the editor of The Sun. Satirists, lay down your pens. Life wins.* So says this g...

I have moved! - My new website is at www.jackofkent.com. Come and join me at the new site, and see my first post there for more news on the move.

WHAT SCOTS WANT IS HOME INTERNATIONALS - Tribune column, 24 February 2012 My dad was not a demonstrative man. A working-class Edinburgh boy, he became part of the white-collar middle class thanks t...

Nemo expectat Sanctum Officium - As long-time readers will be aware (hello, both of you), I like to try and be charitable towards our spiritual leaders. I mean to say, Rowan Williams comes...

Annual Arbroath rally - *SRSM Annual Arbroath rally **Saturday 14th April. **3 pm from Kings Gate at Harbour to Behind the Abbey. **Speakers **Anchor Bar Scoriach **4pm £5 **...

I told you - there are no space hoppers in football - As if to prove the thrust of yesterday's post, Chris Grayling apparently popped up on Radio 4 this morning to claim that campaigners against Workfare were...

Part-time Parliament a loopy idea - *This week Jack Straw proposed abolition of the European Parliament. Richard Howitt MEP, Chair of the European Parliamentary Labour Party (EPLP) and speake...

Neo-nazi flags for sale on Amazon.co.uk - It seems that Nazi flags are on the world’s largest online retailers — Amazon. While texts like Mein Kampf and artifacts such as coins are of genuine his...

February 27-29: David Harvey Speaking in Brazil - David Harvey will be speaking in São Paulo on February 27th and 28th and in Rio de Janeiro on the 29th to celebrate the Brazilian Portuguese translation of...

Faith under fire? - What’s a decentsecular liberal supposed to do for a daily newspaper these days? A refugee fromthe indiscriminately pro-faithist and worryingly fundament-a...

Should we stream our children? - I debate selection and streaming with Katherine Birbalsingh on the BBC. Listen here if you are interested. Go straight to Chapter 6.

All in the name of duty - Surrey Advertiser, January 27 2011 One moment we thought it was a wasted evening; moments later we were hurtling through the streets of Elmbridge. The boro...

On Politics - Obviously, not much being said around here. Mostly, because I haven’t got much to say. But recently I’ve found it hard to articulate to people what, exactl...

Cabin fever - So it finally happened to me … After seven-ish years in Lebanon, I got stuck in an elevator during a power cut. It was coming; I’d ridden my luck for ...

Supply in short supply - Teaching is one of those jobs where, "just be yourself", has to be about the worst possible advice you could give someone. As anyone with any experience wi...

Soul Politics is moving,,,again - An announecment to anyone who still follows this blog, that it will close in a week. I will continue blogging on poltico-theological issues on http://words...

Captain SKA - What's The Point Of Nick Clegg? - A must see video that says it all!

It's time for LU to say goodbye - For seven years, first on my own server then on Blogger, Lancaster Unity (formerly Lancaster UAF) has been fighting fascism and racism as embodied in such ...

Electoral Boundary Changes for Swansea - The proposals for changes to the parliamentary constituency changes in Wales were published yesterday. Immediately jumping to pages 21 to 23 to see what ha...

Time - Chicken Yoghurt will disappear on January 25 when the web-hosting expires. The old girl opened some amazing doors and made me some fantastic friends (they ...

Sanum's report from Sounds Like Freedom - So, for my first blog post of the year Sanum Ghafoor gives us a fantastic overview of last year. She dun 'alf go on, in the most entertaining and humerous ...

Top 10 Dance Tunes of 2011 - The blog maybe deader than England's chances at the European Championships next year, but in 2011 the quietude of its crypt was regularly disturbed by an a...

Imagine if the BBC allowed animals to enter Sports Personality of the Year... - [image: Tian-Tian] *CONTROVERSY raged today over the BBC’s latest act of obvious if unintended sexism, following up their ‘no girls, no females, no women’ ...

quick thoughts on wednesday's strike - it's said that pensions are so much better in the public sector than in the private sector and so they should be made worse. how about let's have better pen...

Police Misconduct - Police Misconduct (http://www.doughtystreet.co.uk/files/20101001.pdf) has been the subject of great debate recently. Drs Mawby and Wright of Keele Universit...

Have Your Say On The Future of Winckley Square - Theindependent body formed to help kick-start the revival of Winckley Square has begun a consultationprocess giving stakeholders of the historic Square a c...

November 30th March in Dundee - As decided at Dundee TUC‘s November 2nd meeting Assemble 12noon, West gate of Dudhope Park (postcode DD1 5RE for satnav / GoogleMap). March off at 12:30pm....

Pull the Units Down - Despite earlier gripes I'm going to be giving several talks about *Uncommon *over the next month or so; one at the Architectural Association in London (o...

Interesting Links for 30-10-2011 - [image: comment count unavailable] comments

Link your brand to the campaign - Have you seen the panasonic facebook campaign, the persecution of Rommy Gulla? Basically, for 28 days, they are pulling some pretty nast practical jokes on...

Donkeywatch - Paul Krugman discovers the Sad Donkeys.

Thanks And Good Bye. - For many complex reasons, which I won’t go into, this blog is closing. It has been around years and I have learnt so much in the process. I would like to t...

London riots: talking sense - Breaking my long silence on here, this woman says what I've longed to hear these past few days

The Power of The Visible : Open up for Social change - Imagine this; a driver is stopped on a provincial road in India. They are asked to pay a ‘fine’ for some unspecified infringement of the road traffic laws....

GERS Report Shows Scotland subsidises UK, says Professor Andrew Hughes Hallett - *From **Newsnet Scotland* [image: Professor Andrew Hughes Hallett on GERS]*EXCLUSIVE:* Newsnet Scotland has interviewed Professor Andrew Hughes Hallet abou...

Co-op Parliamentarians put pressure on Coalition to reconsider Northern Rock firesale - Following the announcement of the plans to sell off Northern Rock, Co-operative parliamentarians have been busy putting pressure on the Coalition to recons...

Video: The TaxPayers’ Alliance – think before you print - The TPA got lots of media coverage for its claim that speed cameras caused rather than prevented road deaths. What happened next? This video looks at just ...

Marriage, expectation and Pippa Middleton's bum - Okay, so this blog post isn't actually about Pippa Middleton's bum but good cod, you'd think it was made of solid gold the way people have been harping on ...

Libyan intervention: Venal leaders exploit good intentions and prop-up bloody regimes - [image: LIBYA] *Image Courtesy of B.R.Q* The humanitarian case for intervening in Libya is well-stated – Libyan rebels faced an inevitable massacre. Yet, ...

An update: The company behind the Twitter spies? - For background, see the bottom of this post. After talking to a few peeps, I’ve decided to throw caution to the wind, and reveal what I know. After all, I...

A Response to Previous Comments - Hi to all who commented on my last post. Thank you for your insight. I've been trying to respond via the comments section on the blog for a while, but B...

Section de Londres – nouveau site - A partir de mars 2011, la section de Londres du PS dispose d’un nouveau site. Veuillez vous rediriger vers http://londres.ffe-ps.org/ . Merci!

Outrage at the council revelations - Originally written for the Socialism in RCT blog SP member of the ponty anti-cuts demoOn March 17th an article appeared on the WalesOnline website explainin...

Lebanon, India, and Jordon - I haven't posted anything here for a long time, but I wanted to link some articles I've done for the New Statesman which, if it wasn't for them allowing me...

A break from blogging - I'm very aware I haven't blogged much of late. At the moment it is more a stress, a chore, than a pleasure . The blog has always been something I have enjo...

This Is What It Sounds Like When Blogs Die... -

Batty Ieuan Wyn Jones - One year after the £5million St Athan Public Inquiry, the groups critical of the plans are demanding Ieuan Wyn Jones - the Minister responsible for the dev...

Equality, consistency, and the rights of Christian B & B owners - Consider the following news item: 'Now some people are more equal than others': Despair of Christian hotel owners penalised for turning away interracial...

Perfidious Albion's ASTROTURFING in Ireland - The term astroturfing denotes political or public relations campaigns that are formally planned by an organization, as opposed to genuine community gr...

Blue Valentine - Blue Valentine is an intense, tender and beautifully observed love story for anyone that’s ever been in love. Driven by stand-out performances from Academy...

Farewell - at least for now - I really should have posted this valedictory comment a long time ago, but what with one thing and another it got forgotten about. Since I now live in North...

Kel (1959 - 2010) - Many of you will have noticed the absence of posts on the Osterley Times. It is with regret that I have to tell you that Kel, the man behind the Osterley T...

It’s the ‘squeeze’ not the ‘middle’ that matters - Writing for New Statesman, Head of Open Left Richard Darlington argues Labour need to ignore definitions of the 'middle' and focus on policies that address...

Will Housing Benefit cuts be approved? - [image: simon_hughs]Simon Hughes Warns; Benefit cuts 'will not be approved'

The value of a pledge? Roughly £7,000 p.a. - It's difficult how to react to these most recent revelations about yet another U-turn by the Liberal Democrats. This must now complete the most comprehen...

Clegg Clamour Continues - The Sheffield Telegraph also ran a story today picking up on our call for Nick Clegg to keep his promise to vote against higher tuition fees. We made page ...

This week's posts - Over at the other place I have written in the past week: A thrilling expose in three parts of whether the referendum bill would be within the legislative c...

The UN’s drug war demagoguery - Antonio Maria Costa is a man with such good fortune that he has a job which shouldn’t exist. Whilst there may be a place for a United Nations and occasions...

A Vilification of the Cliché - Throughout May, there was much discontent demonstrated by the electorate towards politicians. A good portion of this was a reflection of the public’s disap...

Letter to the Irish News - Mark Mulholland's letter (August 6th) is a piece of satire befitting of Swift himself. In a flurry of media excitement we have learnt recently of the openi...

A New Blog - Hi there, Readers will have noticed that my updates have dropped off a bit recently. The good news is, I've co-founded a collaborative blog called The Grea...

Old - And so the elderly were one of the few beneficiaries of today's budget, except those that buy VAT-goods, natch. Why? It seems to ETTL that there is some de...

Support the Right to Work Campaign on Budget Day - Filed under: General Tagged: Budget Cuts, Right to Work

Swedenise us! - Thanks to Gerard O'Neill of *Turbulence Ahead* for publishing yet another of the international comparisons that allow us to see how well – or badly – we ar...

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