Robert Noonan, an Irish housepainter who wrote a single book in his life under the surname Tressell, died from tuberculosis, that old codeword for poverty, in 1911. His single written work, The Ragged-Trousered Philanthropists, stayed unpublished until his daughter Kathleen found a publisher for some of the material in 1914. Noonan’s complete story would not be published until 1955.

An Edwardian version of HBO’s ‘The Wire’, the book is a slow safari through a system defined by absurd injustice. Characters are sketched and lingered on, but are ultimately mere dots that only make sense when the reader steps back and…

The weekend saw the removal of a statue of a slave trader in Bristol by Black Lives Matter protestors. Like so much of social change that is caused by social movements, this particular statue finally fell to direct action after years of discussion and failed petitions. But it begs the question — does history change or is it statuesque?

Next to the Houses of Parliament, on probably one of the most dangerous junctions in the country due to confusing traffic flows and selfie thirsty tourists, there stands another statue. It stands on the brink of Westminster Bridge and shows a…

Something went viral last week. It was a message from an unknown everyman or woman who felt compelled to speak for Britain. It started ‘A message to all our Negative UK Press…’

“…We do not want or need blame. We do not want constant criticism of our government who are doing their very best…But time and again we see our negative press trying to trip up our politicians instead of asking questions that will provide positive and reassuring answers for all of us.”

Pinging around social media, it struck a chord with many. But like so much of what is…

The respected historian Eric Hobsbawm, in an attempt to understand the character of the last two centuries, made two observations that defined his work. First, there was a ‘long nineteenth century’ a 125 year period of relative stability from the French Revolution in 1789 until the First World War in 1914. Second, there was a short Twentieth Century of dynamic turmoil from 1914 to 1989 when the Cold War ended. Hobsbawm made these observations so we could see the similarities and differences not just between dates and events, but between forces of history. …

“The fact of the matter is, millions of people have been killed in vicious circumstances on a regular basis throughout history…They went to the Congo in the late 19th century and decimated it… “[the Holocaust was] almost a normal event…just another fuckery in human history.”

These were the words of the Extinction Rebellion leader Roger Hallam in an interview to the German publication Die Zeit this week. Why is it that in saying these things Hallam has been disowned by the German branch of his own organisation and seen the German publisher of his book withdraw support?

The Holocaust was…

The twenty-year-old Northern Ireland peace deal dealt decisively with the issue of identity — the same issue now at the heart of Brexit

“It’s not about how long it takes a lorry to cross a border,” pleaded Jonathan Powell, Tony Blair’s former chief of staff, on Newsnight recently, “The issue is identity.” Never, in an era of populism, was a truer sentence said.

And Powell should know. As chief negotiator for one of the great diplomatic successes in twentieth-century history it is telling that, although he was talking about the Good Friday Agreement, he could equally have been diagnosing Brexit…

Are you a British voter? Have you heard that Jeremy Corbyn is a Marxist but unsure what that means? If yes then it might be worth making up your mind so you can vote on 12th December in good faith.

To get to the bottom of this we must understand capitalism. Capitalism brings things that are not in the market and makes them marketable. The classic example is your ‘work’. Before capitalism, you just worked on a farm for food or produced something artisanal and exchanged it for other things you needed. The magic of capitalism was to turn this…

“Hanging on in quiet desperation is the English way

The time is gone, the song is over,

Thought I’d something more to say.”

Pink Floyd, 1973

The Conservative Party is the most successful political party in modern history. They are considered by many, and nearly all within it, to be the natural party of government in Britain. If you were to guess the party of government at a random point in the past century then it would likely be the Conservative Party. It dominates.

Today, the party has been in power for more than nine years. So as we enter…