Monthly Archives: June 2018

Among the dead

Posted on 14th June 2018 by Ian

Walking among the headstones in the village cemetery, there is a realisation that the names of people I recognize, the names of people who lie beneath six feet of Somerset soil, now outnumber the names I know of living residents … Continue reading →

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Poops and dupes

Posted on 13th June 2018 by Ian

Against the background of a Northern Ireland election campaign, I had called at the woman’s house. Her mother was seriously ill, her husband suffered a long-term debilitating condition, and she was struggling with the accounts of the family business. A … Continue reading →

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Physical force politics

Posted on 12th June 2018 by Ian

Among early political memories are stories of the Battle of Cable Street, a generation before I was born. The “battle” was a violent demonstration, in October 1936, by residents of London’s East End borough of Stepney, along with Communists, anarchists … Continue reading →

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Online escape

Posted on 11th June 2018 by Ian

Having entered a succession of short story competitions over the past decade and, this year, having submitted entries for festivals as far apart as Yeovil and Edinburgh, a runners-up prize was won in the Worcs LitFest flash fiction competition. The … Continue reading →

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Corbyn’s Nirvana

Posted on 10th June 2018 by Ian

It is some forty years since a brief flirtation with Trotskyite politics. Joining the Labour Party as a seventeen year old in the summer of 1978 meant coming into contact with its Young Socialist wing, at that time dominated by … Continue reading →

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