Category Archives: politics

Notes for the New Year from Plague Island

Posted on 31 December, 2021 by Mark Burton

Four Horsemen of Apocalypse, by Viktor Vasnetsov. Painted in 1887. Public domain via Wikimedia Commons. Today, in the UK we live on a plague island (with some of the highest rates of Covid infections and deaths, globally), politically isolated from … Continue reading →

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Mismanagement or corruption? (Not the ) NHS Test and Trace

Posted on 9 June, 2021 by Mark Burton

The UK government has spent £37,000,000,000, that’s 37 Billion Pounds, on what they call NHS Test and Trace. This is not provided by the National Health Service but by private companies under contract. It only covers England. Until April this … Continue reading →

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Theses on the 2019 General Election

Posted on 27 December, 2019 by eljubilado

Here is my attempt to cast some light on the General Election defeat.  I’ve written it as a set of “theses” to try and make the fairly complex argument concise.  I haven’t covered everything and some of this has already … Continue reading →

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Things I’ve written lately, mostly elsewhere.

Posted on 17 December, 2019 by Mark Burton

I’m rather aware that I’ve been neglecting this blog lately.  It’s not because I’ve been inactive, the opposite, in fact.  So here is a list of the most important things I’ve written over the last year and a bit. “Properly” … Continue reading →

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The new municipalists defeated in several Spanish cities.

Posted on 27 May, 2019 by eljubilado

Updated re Barcelona, Sept 2019. Here is a summary of the major results for the “Cities of Change” (or Fearless Cities / Ciudades sin Miedo), where the insurgent, new municipalist, left gained power, in 2014. Most of these innovative coalitions … Continue reading →

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Brief notes on Catalonia

Posted on 26 October, 2017 by eljubilado

Having friends in Barcelona and liking the city and region, as well as Spain in general, the situation in Catalonia causes me a lot of concern.  A lot of the commentary here oversimplifies the situation with some on the left, … Continue reading →

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Jeremy Corbyn, Prime Minister. What could go wrong?

Posted on 16 June, 2017 by eljubilado

How things change! Within the space of a few weeks, there is now a real possibility of a Labour government with a left wing leadership. That is the result of the snap UK General Election that resulted, not in the … Continue reading →

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The General Election in Greater Manchester: what do the results mean?

Posted on 11 June, 2017 by eljubilado

What happened in Greater Manchester on June 8th? Here is a map showing the swings in Greater Manchester’s parliamentary seats. Red figures indicate a Labour victory while Blue figures indicate a Conservative was elected. Positive figures mean a swing from … Continue reading →

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Fixing the roof when the sun shines

Posted on 2 May, 2017 by eljubilado

Hello is that Mr Osborne? Well, you know that roof you fixed the other summer?  It’s begun to leak again.  Could you come round to sort it out? You don’t work there any more? Firm taken over? Oh.  Could you … Continue reading →

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Platitudes, positions, policies and principles.

Posted on 27 March, 2017 by eljubilado

Platitudes, positions, policies and principles: what can we learn from Gorton’s selection meeting? I attended the selection meeting for the Labour Party’s Gorton by-election last week. There were five candidates, a short-list selected by a 5-person national Labour party panel. … Continue reading →

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