Most sensible people see the horrific wildfires in Los Angeles as a clear symptom of climate change – a clear result of six months’ lack of rainfall in California and fires driven by stronger winds than usual. President-Elect Donald Trump, however, knows better. On his own social media platform, Truth Social, he blamed California governor Gavin Newsom for the challenges […]

Happy New Year. Well, try anyway – we could do with a little happiness. But it won’t be secured by running away from some of the major challenges and threats that face us, for these are dangerous times. Many people are comparing the 2020s to the 1930s but, while that decade saw the rise of dangerous fascist dictators, we’re now […]

Who said history never repeats itself? In Whitehall, Gordon Brown was known as “the Great Clunking Fist”. Now, in his “Plan for Change” speech last Thursday, Sir Keir Starmer promised that his plan would “land on desks across Whitehall with the heavy thud of a gauntlet being thrown down”. He promised his “mission-led government” would be dynamic, more decisive, more […]

It’s seldom difficult to make young men angry about something. John Osborne’s 1956 play Look Back in Anger reflected a whole generation of 1950s “angry young men” who were angry about the class system, inequality and repressive social norms. Today, however, young men’s anger has been weaponised against many of the social and environmental norms that characterise healthy societies. I […]

Most, if not all, senior politicians fulfil the old quip about every political career ending in failure. John Prescott, who died last week was unfortunately no exception. Much ink has been spilled since he died on his remarkable, bumpy and loud political career. But no-one really seems to have celebrated his valiant four-year attempt to point the nation’s planning and […]