September 4, 2011 / consort3

Orwell festival

Bit off topic but I have done Economics so now Politics and lastly will be Philosophy. George Orwell settled in my part of the world for a time and recently the locals decided to hold a festival. The debate I attended was “What George Orwell would write about today” A good panel of Gordon Bowker, Rabinder Singh, Corinna Ferguson, Peter Hitchens and Vitali Vitaliev spoke and debated the question very well I thought. Interestingly, given the recent revelations about News Internatonal’s phone hacking this issue was not mentioned. Anyhow I read Peter Hitchens review of the party conferences and was dismayed to see Andrew Tyrie being led away by the thought police:

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/debate/article-2046912/David-Camerons-Plan-B-Saving-reckless-expense-thrifty.html

Peter Hitchens mentions the other lot and this is interesting:

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/debate/article-7095023/PETER-HITCHENS-Im-glad-Alistair-Campbell-got-chop-hes-dangerous-Corbyn.html

https://www.thecanary.co/trending/2019/07/31/people-are-avidly-sharing-john-mcdonnells-brilliant-explanation-of-why-alastair-campbells-exit-from-labour-is-so-welcome/

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1389487/Inside-Tony-Blairs-nest-vipers-You-the-list-hissed-Cherie-Blair.html

http://www.walesartsreview.org/off-message-by-bob-marshall-andrews/

Bob seems like me, a quotidian Spartist of the metropolitan left! Here is the real one:

http://www.newstatesman.com/politics/uk/2016/10/why-jeremy-corbyn-political-answer-john-peel

Vitali told us that the Politburo had 100 copies of Animal Farm printed for them even though it was banned in Russia. Classic case of “Everyone’s equal. Its just that some are more equal than others”

The extent of spin

https://www.craigmurray.org.uk/

http://www.thecanary.co/2016/06/28/truth-behind-labour-coup-really-began-manufactured-exclusive/

https://www.craigmurray.org.uk/archives/2017/01/good-riddance-tristram-hunt/

Sofa government

https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2006/may/16/comment.labour

Cause of Brexit

http://www.thelondonglobalist.org/can-we-blame-tony-blair-for-brexit-too/

Cronyism:

http://evolvepolitics.com/labour-appeal-fury-as-high-court-judge-philip-sales-intimate-links-to-tony-blair-revealed/

Lack of press support for Corbyn

http://www.morningstaronline.co.uk/a-2b76-The-big-picture-on-Copeland#.WLE9PjjzaiB

http://www.newstatesman.com/politics/staggers/2016/08/bbc-biased-against-jeremy-corbyn-look-evidence

Nice to see the Labour party get behind Corbyn

https://www.thecanary.co/2017/04/13/leaked-email-shows-labour-rulebook-applies-corbyn-supporters-images/

http://www.theneweuropean.co.uk/top-stories/steve-coogan-alan-partridge-would-have-voted-brexit-1-5124497

The UK press are the problem

https://www.byline.com/column/68/article/1674

https://www.thecanary.co/trending/2018/03/27/the-bogus-antisemitism-smear-against-jeremy-corbyn-was-just-debunked-in-the-times-of-israel/

https://www.thecanary.co/trending/2018/04/03/we-need-to-talk-about-the-flat-out-lie-the-bbc-told-last-night-because-it-was-appalling/

https://mainlymacro.blogspot.co.uk

He is not a naughty boy, he is the messiah

http://www.newyorker.com/news/daily-comment/the-book-of-jeremy-corbyn

Cometh the hour, cometh the Jeremy

http://www.independent.co.uk/voices/jeremy-corbyn-shadow-cabinet-reshuffle-gloria-de-piero-blairites-purge-self-entitled-out-in-the-cold-a7822431.html

Hammond has nicked the budget from Corbyn

http://www.independent.co.uk/voices/budget-philip-hammond-jeremy-corbyn-labour-policies-ed-miliband-manifesto-a8070511.html

Falling car sales point to a Corbyn govenment

http://uk.businessinsider.com/falling-car-sales-point-to-labour-government-under-jeremy-corbyn-2018-1

https://www.newstatesman.com/politics/uk/2018/01/bennites-revenge-how-jeremy-corbyn-and-his-allies-survived-political-exilement about Boris

http://uk.businessinsider.com/former-eu-negotiator-mays-government-has-handled-brexit-in-the-absolute-worst-way-2017-7

https://www.newstatesman.com/culture/observations/2018/02/why-antonio-gramsci-marxist-thinker-our-times

https://original.antiwar.com/cook/2018/08/17/corbyn-smeared-as-anti-semite-for-a-reason/

https://www.counterpunch.org/2018/08/28/corbyn-is-being-destroyed-like-blowing-up-a-bridge-to-stop-an-advancing-army/

https://www.veteranstoday.com/2018/08/17/nice-guy-jeremy-corbyn-needs-to-get-mean/

https://www.opednews.com/articles/The-plot-to-keep-Jeremy-Co-by-Jonathan-Cook-Anti-semitism_Brexit_Israel_Jeremy-Corbyn-190704-788.html

https://www.thelondoneconomic.com/opinion/jeremy-corbyn-is-the-most-smeared-politician-in-history/18/07/

Corbyn was right!

https://inews.co.uk/opinion/comment/coronavirus-crisis-we-will-come-to-learn-jeremy-corbyn-was-right-2526507

https://www.counterpunch.org/2020/12/02/labors-continuing-corbyn-antisemitism-saga/

The Excess has has an epiphany. It was obvious that we would be worse off with Brexit but it now seems to have sunk in!

🆕Somebody doesn’t like the Snail

https://evolvepolitics.com/these-daily-mail-headlines-just-one-month-apart-show-precisely-whats-wrong-with-the-mainstream-media/

Amendment to Tory manifesto

http://newsthump.com/2017/05/22/tories-to-allow-day-off-work-to-leave-elderly-relative-on-mountain-top-for-vultures/

Rip off Britain

https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2017/aug/03/britain-world-beater-ripping-off-citizens-rail-fares-water-energy-bills

Connection between George Orwell and the Hitchen Bros.

http://www.lrb.co.uk/v25/n12/terry-eagleton/reach-me-down-romantic

RIP Christopher

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/debate/article-2075133/Christopher-Hitchens-death-In-Memoriam-courageous-sibling-Peter-Hitchens.html

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/culturenews/8961815/Christopher-Hitchens-a-sober-perception-however-much-he-drank.html

http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/2011/dec/16/christopher-hitchens-commentary-frances-stonor-saunders

They have hopefully saved the Tribune, the magazine George wrote for

http://hurryupharry.org/2011/10/29/61645/

Orwell claimed he was lower upper middle class. “ Probably the distinguishing mark of the upper-middle class was that its traditions were not to any extent commercial, but mainly military, official, and professional. People in this class owned no land, but they felt that they were landowners in the sight of God and kept up a semi-aristocratic outlook by going into the professions and the fighting services rather than into trade” Since engineering is presumably regarded as trade the British did not get the talents of that class in engineering. Orwell is famous for his essays. Here is one:

http://theorwellprize.co.uk/george-orwell/by-orwell/essays-and-other-works/hop-picking/

Orwell famously suffered for his art to write Down and out in Paris and London. Despite his writings we still have slavery:

http://graphics.latimes.com/product-of-mexico-camps/

Novel technique for teaching 1984

https://www.theatlantic.com/education/archive/2016/11/teaching-1984-in-2016/508226/

Another Indian born Journalist/Author was Rudyard Kipling. Other writers with a similar background are Spike Milligan and the Durrell brothers, Gerald and Lawrence.

https://theconversation.com/fan-of-rudyard-kipling-then-you-should-read-the-hundreds-of-other-stories-he-wrote-65207

https://www.theguardian.com/books/2015/dec/26/rudyard-kipling-unexpected-revival-150-years-after-birth

Paranoid, moi? Heard of Big Brother?

http://www.wired.com/threatlevel/2011/11/reasons-to-wear-tinfoil-hats/ http://rationalwiki.org/wiki/Tinfoil_hat

http://www.nytimes.com/2013/03/09/us/politics/visions-of-drones-in-us-skies-touch-bipartisan-nerve.html?

1984 has turned into reality:

https://www.lewrockwell.com/2013/07/murray-n-rothbard/george-orwell-and-the-uss-cold-war/

http://techcrunch.com/2015/02/08/telescreen/

Good blog on life and politics from a UK perpective now on Twitter:

http://anotherangryvoice.blogspot.co.uk/

Now on Substack (better}

https://anotherangryvoice.substack.com/

Another good UK blog

http://jackofkent.com

Good blog on life and politics from a US perpective:

http://www.sailblogs.com/member/thewanderer/

Shocking

https://www.facebook.com/kimball.corson/posts/731677813524858

We are all doomed:

http://ourfiniteworld.com/

http://wattsupwiththat.com/2014/02/16/the-real-reason-for-flooding-in-somerset-levels-not-global-warming-the-only-pump-was-turned-off/

http://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2014/sep/02/limits-to-growth-was-right-new-research-shows-were-nearing-collapse/

http://blogs.reuters.com/great-debate/2015/06/18/a-child-born-today-may-live-to-see-humanitys-end-unless/

http://www.rollingstone.com/politics/news/what-is-killing-americas-bees-and-what-does-it-mean-for-us-20150818

http://www.theatlantic.com/international/archive/2015/09/united-states-china-war-thucydides-trap/406756/

https://alfinnextlevel.wordpress.com/2015/10/10/why-do-wealthy-people-leave-their-countries/

http://www.nytimes.com/2016/06/02/technology/why-the-world-is-drawing-battle-lines-against-american-tech-giants.html

http://www.theatlantic.com/international/archive/2016/08/iraq-afghanistan-contractor-pentagon-obama/495731/

http://www.opednews.com/articles/Pentagon-And-CIA-At-War-In-by-Eric-Margolis-Assad_Isis_Pentagon-Failures_Syria-160904-441.html

🆕https://www.theguardian.com/artanddesign/shortcuts/2018/jun/12/no-wonder-we-are-still-hooked-on-dads-army-in-brexit-britain-we-are-reliving-it

🆕https://www.vice.com/en_us/article/8xwygg/the-collapse-of-civilization-may-have-already-begun

Ten ways the world has changed

http://swarajyamag.com/ideas/10-things-that-tell-you-the-world-aint-what-it-used-to-be

Scary:

https://www.theguardian.com/science/the-lay-scientist/2016/feb/18/has-a-rampaging-ai-algorithm-really-killed-thousands-in-pakistan

Good summary of the EU political problem. I remember Ted Heath’s “There will be no loss of sovereignty”

http://www.newstatesman.com/2014/01/the-best-europe-we-have-ever-had

Interesting article on politics and representation

http://theconversation.com/the-end-of-representative-politics-41997

How Thatcher denied the public fibre optic broadband

http://www.techradar.com/news/world-of-tech/how-the-uk-lost-the-broadband-race-in-1990-1224784/1

Old people are skewing British politics

http://www.vice.com/en_uk/read/how-old-people-are-skewing-our-politics

The British used to be regarded as incorruptible but there has been a creeping loss of morality mainly caused by News International. Read this for a sense of disquiet: When you join an organisation where the leadership is corrupt it is very difficult not to go with the flow.

http://www.newstatesman.com/blogs/david-allen-green/2012/02/news-world-murder-rees-hames http://uk.reuters.com/article/2011/07/20/uk-newscorp-privateeyes-idUKTRE76J2UP20110720

http://www.justice4daniel.org/ http://uk.reuters.com/article/2011/07/20/uk-pht-newscorp-britain-corruption-idUKTRE76J2FH20110720

http://www.byline.com/column/2/article/118

http://www.byline.com/column/2/article/140

‘Fake Sheikh’ Mazher Mahmood guilty over Tulisa case – BBC News

https://www.byline.com/column/68/article/1982

Naughty gummermint obfuscating part 2 of Leveson

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-38396265

House of Lords objecting

http://www.cityam.com/278578/leveson-inquiry-round-two-government-bill-defeat-lords

🆕Interesting article on Max of F1 fame and the press

https://inforrm.org/2018/02/16/data-protection-and-press-bullying-a-response-max-mosley/#more-39330

🆕Press trying to smear Max

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-5441827/Did-F1-tycoon-Max-Mosley-lie-orgy-trial.html

Gary Lineker voices celebrity press fears

https://www.byline.com/column/20/article/1358

Useless politicos breaking election promises:

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/financial-crime/9137024/Vince-Cable-rails-against-US-extradition-treaty.html

Orwell was a product of the British empire and all empires wax and wane

Roman

http://www.vox.com/2014/8/19/5942585/40-maps-that-explain-the-roman-empire

https://fee.org/articles/the-slow-motion-financial-suicide-of-the-roman-empire

Motorola

http://www.chicagomag.com/Chicago-Magazine/September-2014/What-Happened-to-Motorola/

Dismantling empires through devolution

http://www.theatlantic.com/international/archive/2014/09/stronger-than-democracy/380774/

Whitewash on whistleblowers

http://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2015/feb/12/protect-whistleblowers-outside-nhs-too-francis-review

Worrying article on unbridled private enterprise:

http://www.rollingstone.com/politics/news/the-stoner-arms-dealers-20110316

I have been interested in Mcafee since Belize, he was born in Cinderford, Forest of Dean!

http://nymag.com/daily/intelligencer/2016/09/the-obscure-legal-drug-that-fuels-john-mcafee.html

🆕https://loggiaonfire.com/stream/S1526270400.html

https://news.yahoo.com/millionaire-john-mcafee-arrested-dominican-232017508.html

An interesting analysis of conspiracy theories

http://www.alphr.com/science/1002526/if-your-conspiracy-theory-were-real-the-secret-would-be-out-by-now

A good explanation of income inequality

http://www.salon.com/2016/03/06/its_shameless_financial_strip_mining_les_leopold_explains_how_the_1_percent_killed_the_middle_class/

Obama’s policy change
http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/middle-east/barack-obama-saudi-arabia-us-foreign-policy-syria-jihadism-isis-a6927646.html

Remarkably prescient short story written in 1946 predicting computers and the internet

http://www.baen.com/chapters/W200506/0743499107___2.htm

Another prescient prediction from an alliterative author Richard Rorty

https://themultidisciplinarian.com/2016/11/09/richard-rorty-on-election-2016/

More prescient predictions on meritocracy

https://www.economist.com/news/britain/21736524-book-published-60-years-ago-predicted-most-tensions-tearing-contemporary-britain

🆕More prescient predictions this time from 1968

http://www.bbc.com/culture/story/20190509-the-1968-sci-fi-that-spookily-predicted-today

Reinforcing why Trump happened:

http://johnhcochrane.blogspot.co.uk/2017/02/miserable-21st-century.html

🆕Trump vs Europe

http://www.koreatimes.co.kr/www/opinion/2018/07/197_252964.html

Interesting article by an ex-pat

http://www.vox.com/first-person/2016/10/4/13093380/happiness-america-ruth-whippman

With Trumps inauguration this seems apposite

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Escape_from_Freedom

The “freedom from” and “freedom to” in the above link resonates with this comparison of 1984 and Brave new world

https://www.theguardian.com/media/2017/feb/02/amusing-ourselves-to-death-neil-postman-trump-orwell-huxley

Orwell and Huxley may have got their ideas from Zamyatin

http://www.thelondonglobalist.org/zamyatin-huxley-and-orwell-troubling-similarities/

Illustrated guide to the difference between Orwell and Huxley

http://static.highexistence.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/03/huxley_orwell1.jpg

Trumps taxes

http://johnhcochrane.blogspot.co.uk/2016/12/trump-taxes-two.html#more

Trumps philosophical ideas?

http://tarpley.net/oswald-spengler-race-theorist-of-the-trump-regime/

More Trump ideology?

https://www.theguardian.com/books/2017/apr/10/new-age-ayn-rand-conquered-trump-white-house-silicon-valley

The antithesis of Rand

https://www.theguardian.com/books/2016/dec/13/raoul-martinez-writing-creating-freedom-artist

🆕Totalitarianism now

https://blog.apaonline.org/2018/03/22/philosophy-in-the-contemporary-world-totalitarianism-in-our-time/

Anyone who can sack Boycs after he made a double ton is worthy of respect. Doug Insole R.I.P

http://www.espncricinfo.com/magazine/content/story/583298.html

Essex had not won the County championship until 1979:

https://www.theguardian.com/sport/2020/sep/29/the-spin-cricket-somerset-essex-cricket-1980s-glory-days-richards-botham-fletcher-gooch

https://www.espncricinfo.com/story/_/id/18341099/essex-run-championship-victories-1980s

There is a line of Essex and England captains and I believe it is the legacy of Insole and Trevor Bailey back in the fifties. Combatative yet sporting they influenced Fletcher, Gooch, Hussain and Cook.

Orwells state surveillance has become commercial surveillance:

http://idlewords.com/talks/build_a_better_monster.htmkk

Japanese optimist

https://www.weforum.org/agenda/2017/08/is-this-japanese-concept-the-secret-to-a-long-life/

Japanese pessimist

http://nautil.us/blog/-alienation-is-killing-americans-and-japanese

Unlikely Wolves fan

http://www.alphr.com/life-culture/1006982/twitter-has-made-mark-hamill-an-accidental-fan-of-wolverhampton-wanderers

How to obscure your presence on the internet

http://mitp.nautil.us/feature/257/how-to-obfuscate

Interesting comments on the philosophy of Alan Watts

https://qz.com/1161704/silicon-valley-elite-from-companies-like-facebook-and-google-are-soothing-their-consciences-at-californias-esalen-institute/