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Statue of Limitations
So, the controversial statue of the merchant Edward Colston has been tugged down and thrown into Bristol Harbour. There had long been moves to have it either removed to be museum-bound or have a plaque added to its base to reflect his slave-trading past. Both options seemed fair – if there had been enough support…
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Wide Awoke
I was watching coverage of the Black Lives Matter protests on TV and paused to reflect on the point of protests. They don’t after all directly work, because those in power generally don’t give a flying fart about your concerns. If they did, they would typically make a boatload of progress in dealing with them.…
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The New Black
So, black lives matter. Well, they do this week because there’s a big old meaty bandwagon gathering pace and every bloated, comfortable, privileged hypocrite wants to hop on for the ride. If black lives mattered – as a point of social reality – then the Back Lives Matter movement would not need to exist. Make…
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Fraudian Slip
Remember when Dr Jenny Harries, the UK’s Deputy Chief Medical Officer, first attended the daily Government briefings? She was drowning in an ocean of kudos. Clear, articulate, and factual with ‘a measured tone’. She was, in March, an ‘unlikely hero’. Of course, at the start of this whole mess, much was unknown, and we were…
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Clap-Trap
So, it’s a wrap. Or at least, we think it is. And as predicted, some bod – to whom the nation must surely be eternally grateful – has popped up to signal the end of the weekly clap. In fact, it’s the very person who had been credited with its initiation, so perhaps we’ll can…
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One Rule for Them…
…and another rule for us. Arguably the most divisive of discourses, and indeed it is by definition. It’s why Cummings is still wriggling to get out from under a steaming pile. Yet, one essential factor in the rule of law entitles everybody to the presumption of innocence until proven guilty. Everybody. So, did Big Dom…
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Scum Off It
There’s a lot of anger about at the moment. ‘Dominic Cummings has undermined the Government’s key messaging, and people will die’. That’s the gist of the populist line, and yes, the sublime irony is noted. How about an alternative perspective: ‘The Government has ballsed up their strategy, policy, and messaging for the coronavirus response’. I…
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Chalice in Wonderland
The power of the corona catalyst continues and has reached a new height – the resurrection of the Church of England. Well, that’s a long shot, but our hitherto anonymous purple-shirted stormtroopers have shotgunned some Blood of Christ/Korean Chablis and have stormed onto the dancefloor to throw some shapes. They are apparently very cross indeed…
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Half-Term Holidays
So, whether the seemingly indomitable Dom hangs on, it remains to be seen, but attempts to take him down have followed a now predictable path and a screaming acceleration into post-fact baloney. ‘Broken the law…’, ‘Broken the rules…’ – it’s all been swung about like an asexually person-handled Russian Olympic hammer. But let’s have a…
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Phone a Friend
Another day, another distraction. This time, the Prime Minister’s principal adviser, Dominic Cummings, has been outed for allegedly breaching lockdown rules 10 weeks ago. He denies that, and no action had been taken at the time. Meanwhile, the eloquence of lawyers who had been falling over themselves on social media to create ‘reasonable excuses’ for…
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Fighting the Good Fight…
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