So I was talking about ostalgie kitsch and people sleeping in Wartburgs in north London. What, they cry, is he on about? Well, let me throw this one out. When the word was invented, the people who felt ostalgic were a pretty well-defined group sociologically – they were the people who had been part of…
Read More feeling westalgic yet?David Harvey’s Brief History of Neoliberalism is a pretty decent survey, if you’re a slightly naive People and Planet-ish student just dipping a toe into the idea that perhaps, maybe, something is wrong with society. But then, I suspect that this was precisely the audience he had in mind. That sounds sarcastic, because it is.…
Read More read this book, if you’ve not read better booksSo we now know that the thing invented to bully the exam boards because the Mail said so bullied the exam boards because the Mail said so, and no doubt something about Michael Gove will be along soon enough. How did people notice there was something up in the first place? Well, the long-term rise…
Read More Gove did it to A-levels as wellWhy hasn’t Marunchak been arrested?
Read More Short LevesonThe key point in the airports row is, I think, that the technocrats can rule options out but only the politicians can rule them in. For example, the industry, the air traffic controllers, and the transport planners are keen on Heathrow, but it’s politically difficult. On the other hand, the planners, the controllers, and the…
Read More so where will that airport end up?Responding to this tweet from Adam Bienkov: Gary Gibbon: Discontented Tory backbenchers want Philip Hammond or Liam Fox to replace Cameron. Boris doesn't even register #channel4news — Adam Bienkov (@AdamBienkov) September 10, 2012 It struck me that I actually had some political gossip that was relevant. A while ago I saw an old university pal…
Read More 3 principles on ToriesSo how do you get people to join an army and learn a highly specialised skill set, in fact, several, if your elite as a society is trying not to be part of society? Two links, both from Small Wars Journal. Plutocratic insurgency, starting with the Mont Pelerin Society – a far better framing than…
Read More In which I play a historian on the InternetAmong the fascinating prospects you poor fools are going to have to suck up is a full dress review of David Harvey’s History of Neoliberalism (shorter me: I think it’s adequate-ish), but before we get to that, a point I’d like to pull forward. In his conclusion, he spends quite a lot of time arguing…
Read More The sources of cupcake conservatismOK, here’s a photo from my summer. The car, in front of the modernist building, in the rather dilapidated car park, is an actual product of the DDR, a Wartburg, with Hungarian plates. Where are we, and why? Obviously, we’re in Archway, N19, north London but not the cupcakey sort. The car park is next…
Read More What I did on my holidays: a stability pact photoOK, so the Syrian air force drops these things – large, light alloy containers stuffed with shrapnel and low explosive, with a canister of much higher explosive in the middle, probably delivered from a helicopter or a tactical airlifter. Here’s an odd historical point. a two gallon drum with a cylinder containing about two pounds…
Read More Hello to all that – Syria, Sudan, and his Lordship