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[Entries are in reverse date order, latest at the top. Comments and contributions are welcome to the email address at the bottom.] |
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Friday 15th May |
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It's been a while. The political chaos of the UK and the world at large has generated so many column inches that it has seemed superfluous to comment further. What more can you say about the madness of Trump, the rise of Reform or the implosion of the Labour Party?
Last week I was in Friuli, north-east Italy, for the 50th anniversary commemorations of the 1976 earthquake. So - and I should have expected this - not so much a jolly excursion, more a sombre and dutiful recognition of the event. I stayed with my friend Carlo in the village of Talmassons, south of Udine, where I had been teaching on the night of the earthquake. Personal sadness there, as Carlo's wife Bianca died last summer. He's alone in the old farmhouse that once held 27 family members. The village, as Carlo himself notes, is almost hollowed out, the product of a shrunken birthrate. Almost nobody around, even on a sunny day. Countless large houses empty, or with a single occupant. I still managed some moments of light enjoyment. The day after the actual anniversary, I drove up my favourite valley towards Slovenia, along the river Natisone, and then higher up to a village close to the border, Oblizza, visited all those years ago. A mad name, as mad as friend Sandrin who lived there. He rarely left the hilltops, but was forced briefly into the hospital at Udine through ill health. A cousin smuggled in a bottle of grappa which he kept under his pillow. Here's a view of the hills on the border and a glimpse of the Oblizza church (click to enlarge all photos below): 
Driving back down to the valley floor, I made a discovery, one which had eluded me on previous return visits. In 1976, before we had cars, a group of us had walked all the way up to Oblizza, much of it then on unpaved strade bianche. Coming back down, in the village of San Leonardo, we stopped at a simple roadside bar. Time passed, we drank red wine, and then slowly a kind of madness seemed to descend on the place. A young boy had a set of drums through an open door at the end of the main bar; every ten minutes or so he would unleash a deafening attack on them. There was a man apparently covered in coal dust who showed us a paper parcel which when opened revealed a brick. As time went on he was unable to stand up straight, leaning over backwards with his shoulders resting on the bar counter. Eventually, his friends carried him out. When we left, he was sprawled supine over the bonnet of a car. We called his condition "Malattia di Vino". As I drove through San Leonardo this time, I spotted the building and cried out to myself, "That's it, the Malattia bar!" I turned round at the next available junction, went back and parked opposite, precisely where we had left our coal dust friend. Distracted, I suspect, because I was so delighted to have found the bar, I started to cross the road and immediately there was a squeal of tyres as a car, travelling fast, screeched to a stop a yard from me. The driver and I acknowledged the close shave. Two boys came out of the building, and a woman from the house next door (see the second picture). I said to her that I might have died right there and then, and she replied, "But evidently not today." She confirmed to me that the house had indeed been a bar, but a long time ago. 
I drove on, further down the valley, to the little town of San Pietro al Natisone. There on the corner was the perfect place to eat, exactly what our family would have been looking out for: simple, honest, great value for money. 
I went in and enquired whether they were serving lunch. Daft question, really, as it's what they do. The signora said yes and asked if I were alone. I replied, "Unfortunately, I am." Moments like this you want to share with friends or family. I keep receipts on holiday. They tell a story, remind me of special moments. Here's the conto for my meal: 
€19.50 for a main course of cinghiale - boar - and polenta, with a side dish of beans, plus bread and fizzy water. Here's the alla carta menu, from which I chose rather than going for the menu del giorno, as I wasn't sufficiently hungry to choose that, unlike the group of workmen to my left who - deservedly, I'm sure - hoovered up plates of pasta followed by bistecche. 
So - I won't keep you wondering - here's the meal: 
The next family thing, particularly inherited by son Ben, who's just sent relevant photos from Toulon where he's working, is hanging about outside bars watching the world go by. Here are three from last week's travels, in Palmanova, Marano Lagunare and Portogruaro: 
50 years ago I would of course have had a beer and a fag on the go, but not this time. Six years since I touched alcohol and two-and-a-half since a cigarette. I still felt a twinge going past this sign, the anticipation of picking up a packet of Camel Filter, the ritual of removing the cellophane. 
On my last-but-one day I made a brief morning visit to Grado, a Friulan Adriatic resort. The old town is charming. The beach, however, is unlike anything we would associate with our Cornwall or Dorset. Not many there that day. 
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Thursday 2nd April |
I browsed the newspapers - to go with a cup of tea - in Waitrose yesterday afternoon as is my wont. The Guardian had sold out - this is Stroud - so, bypassing the Mail and Express, of which there were still plenty - this is Stroud - I settled on The New World. I heard of it from Alastair Campbell's shameless promotion on The Rest is Politics, but this is the first time I've read it. Sure enough, there was Campbell's full-page diary just inside the cover. It's a weekly magazine, so this edition was from 26th March:
Yes, I am the converted to whom they're preaching here, which I'd expected because Campbell is such a fervent Remainer, or Rejoiner as we would probably say these days. You can tell quite a lot about an organ's politics from its cartoons, so I include here Tim Bradford's from last week (click to enlarge (a bit)): 
There you are, you've got the picture. I experience slight discomfort as I digest quite so much content with which I agree, although I've had plenty of practice with The Guardian. I feel like I'm being watched, that I've been found out. My default stance with most of the media is one of rage and attack as we're fed more right-wing lies, so this stuff induces a touch of queasiness; it's all too easy. I'm not complaining, I'm glad somebody is writing it. While we're at it, here's a little more of the same, this coming week's front page: 
A final nagging back-of-the-brain thought. Are those who read The New World the right people, the ones we'd like to reach? The huge task facing the left is to convince those who disagree with us. Will TNW convince Reform voters to change sides? I doubt it. They'd never pick it off the shelves, they'd be as enraged as I would with the opposite. In the bin with it, back to the Mail. So how do we do it? If you've got the answer, let me - and the 48% - know. |
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Friday 6th March |
OK, so we knew that Stroud's Thrupp ward tended to Green, and a lot of effort went into the campaign, but nonetheless ...
These lovely people couldn't be mistaken for Reform voters, could they? A creditable 67.50% of the vote. Then Reform 16.50%, Tories 7.25%, Labour 5.75%. |
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Wednesday 4th March |
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I love charts and graphs and as several have fallen into my lap (well, WhatsApp group) I'm going to share three here. Even if they aren't the happiest.
First, current voting intentions from YouGov and The Times: 
The striking - and pleasing in this house - feature here is how the Greens have advanced in recent weeks, as we've seen with Hannah Spencer's triumph in Gorton & Denton. Reform, appallingly, trumps Green. Which gets worse with this one from Stats for Lefties predicting the next General Election outcome (seats on the Y axis): 
I am absolutely confounded by the degree to which Reform come out ahead of all the other parties, and further distressed by another S4L offering on the age factor (not stated what the column totals signify, but percentage points?): 
Who are all these people of my age voting for Reform? No, I actually don't want to know. And I don't want to meet them. An attitude which won't do, of course. If we don't find out why they want to vote this way, and then change their minds, we are all doomed. We need to wake up and commit to countering what threatens to be an unspeakable outcome. So, in contrast, a little light - Green - reminder going out locally, with spring in our steps, for a by-election: 
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Tuesday 3rd March |
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Our local Green Party has responded to the USA-Israel attack on Iran on most media platforms.
On the website: 
Another illegal war: our reaction to the USA/Israel attacks on Iran 2nd March 2026 by Susan Fenton Here's the same on Bluesky: 
Stroud's Labour MP Simon Opher also posted yesterday on Bluesky: 
Simon frequently challenges Labour HQ; he has done so repeatedly on Gaza. Can it be long before he crosses over to the Greens? His jumper's the right colour. |
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Friday 27th February |
Gorton & Denton delight!
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Thursday 26th February |
Feverish excitement in Stroud today as it's polling at the Gorton & Denton by-election in Manchester. Stroudie Greens have been piling up the motorway (electric car shares, of course) to support the radiant Hannah Spencer for the last fortnight; plenty will be there today.
G&D activists were asked for words to describe Hannah's campaign (click to enlarge): 
It's a real chance for the Greens, which is why Polanski and the rest of the party have given so much support. The betting odds are favourable - here are Coral's yesterday: 
That's right - the odds-on Greens lead, followed by Reform, then Labour, whose majority was 13,413 in July 2024 and now look likely to lose the seat. Labour continue to say that a vote for the Green Party is a vote for Reform. On the contrary, in Gorton a vote for Labour is a vote for Reform. Jeremy Corbyn has - no surprise - told would-be-Your-Party-ists (no candidate on offer) to back the Greens, not Labour. An indication of the seriousness with which the right take the Green challenge can be seen at the Daily Mail. Here's their little eye-catcher: 
Here's yesterday's front page: 
Running scared. Dirty tricks. We wait to see the outcome. There will be jubilation here among Stroud Greens if Spencer wins, deep gloom if Reform pinch it. Everybody assumes that it will be a dark night for Labour and Starmer. The Tories and LibDems aren't in the game. |
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Friday 20th February |
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Tuesday 17th February |
So ran the headline of Nesrine Malik's hatchet job in The Guardian yesterday. Here follow some snippets. First, the opening put-down: "The prime minister's persistent unpopularity is best understood as the result of abundance: there is simply, in Starmer, something for everyone to deplore." The main reason why he has alienated Labour voters: "In policy, he has taken stances that have established him in the minds of many people as devoid of principle and compassion." Gaza was enough for me. Finally, the person: "And then there is Starmer himself. Personality alone does not make a politician, and God knows we have suffered enough from big personalities such as Boris Johnson - but you need something. He doesn't dream, he says, nor does he have phobias, nor favourite novels. He communicates in only the most generic terms, in staccato sentences using repetitive themes - "change" or his working-class roots - connected by meaningless "let me be clears" and "make no mistakes". This manner summons all sorts of characters that overpopulate our corporatised lives - the middle manager, the jobsworth, the emissary from head office." All from a journalist at a flagship organ of the left. Who needs enemies? 
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Saturday 14th February |
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I take no pleasure in the trouble facing Labour at the moment; I voted for them. I say moment, but it feels bigger than that, a threat to an old and worthy movement that may remove it from the mainstream. Alongside the Tories.
My latest theory is that the Labour Party peaked with the post WWII Atlee government, typified by the creation of arguably Britain's greatest institution, the NHS. Since then - yes, I include Wilson - the party has been scrambling to remain relevant, twisting itself against its founding values in an attempt to second guess the electorate, like Blair and his New Labour project, cosying up to vested interests. A shrinking home for the elderly left-winger, but maybe no longer for this one. Starmer lost me with the defenestration of potential Stroud general election candidate Doina Cornell (read my post on this in 2022: 👉) during his ideo-cleansing of the party, then with Gaza, and now the Mandelson sleaze. Meanwhile, here in Stroud the local Green Party is bubbling with enthusiasm. The membership has risen from 450 to 1,100 in around six months. I've been helping out a bit, managing sections of the website, providing support for a local campaign in a district council by-election. Amidst the grim politics of grievance, the atmosphere of decency and positivity is marked. Labour continues to cry that a vote for the Greens is a vote for Reform, but couldn't it be the other way round? In Gorton and Denton it may certainly be true. Green voting, either on principle or tactically, by the Labour disaffected could tip the balance away from Reform. Today, a coachload of local Greens from Stroud is going up to Manchester to support Hannah Spencer in her G&D campaign: 
A decent person, local, a plumber and soon-to-be plasterer. Should win the dog-lover vote. Coral betting has the Greens as odds-on favourites: 
In the philosophical background to Green policies on the party website, this is the first statement: 
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Friday 23rd January |
Jared Kushner presented yesterday morning at the "Board of Peace" show in Davos. (Click to enlarge images.)
I'm sure those displaced Gazans can't wait to get into their waterfront apartments. No guesses who's going to make money out of it. |
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Wednesday 21st January |
You'll have seen it, I'm sure, but once again I feel obliged to record this:
That's yesterday's rant. Last May the US State Department published fulsome praise: 
Have you looked at Truth Social? Yes, I admit that I have an account, just so I can check out the horse's mouth. Yards of bat-shit-crazy support for DJT. Here's an image posted by WomenForTrump (in fact, there are around 20 so-named accounts, owned by individual women - I assume): 
This imagery is everywhere on the platform. Trump as king ... prophet ... God ... saviour. They truly believe. Does he? |
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Tuesday 20th January |
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It's been all over the media, but I still have to record its appearance. Final proof of Trump's infancy, toys out of the pram ... the letter to Norwegian Prime Minister Jonas Gahr Støre:
"Dear Jonas, President DJT" Most us cried "Scam!", I imagine. However, it was originally shared by Nick Schifrin, legit journalist, PBS NewsHour's foreign affairs and defense correspondent, previously Al Jazeera America's Middle East voice. Faisal Islam confirmed live on BBC Breakfast from Davos yesterday morning. The letter was all over BBC News and Newsnight last night. Business economist Pepel Klaasa - "I am a Russian, Israeli and Belgian citizen ... yep, such things happen" - suggested on Twitter/X that Macron should write this letter to the US Ambassador to France, Charles Kushner: "Dear Charles, President Emmanuel Macron" Faisal Islam, apologetically distracted from what he sees as his proper job in Davos, took time out to object to Trump's claim of "no written documents" and drew attention to the USA's declaration on Danish sovereignty of Greenland in 1916. The declaration (reproduced below) was included as an appendix to the contract concerning the sale of the Danish West Indies to USA, both of which were signed on 4th August 1916. The American foreign minister Robert Lansing (1864-1928) signed the declaration on behalf of the USA in support of Denmark's claim to sovereignty over Greenland. 
I take my hat off to Austrian cartoonist Oliver Schopf for his prescient offering of 6 October 2025: 
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Monday 19th January |
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The Trump approach to Greenland has at the very least ruffled feathers in Europe and should lead to some robust conversation in Davos this week, if European leaders have shaken off their meek tendency to kow-tow.
It's worth noting that the USA has bought territory in the past. Here's a list of significant purchases compiled by ChatGPT: 
Yes, they've done business with Denmark before (see the last entry above). They've also discussed the specific possibility of purchasing Greenland, in 1867, 1946 and 2019; all approaches were refused. In military terms, nothing has recently prevented the USA from having a greater presence on the island (see the 1951 Greenland Defense Agreement). There were an estimated 15,000 US personnel on the ground at the height of the Cold War, and it is the USA itself that voluntarily reduced that number to the 150 at Pituffik now (or before this whole furore erupted). 
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Sunday 18th January |
No shit. About bloody time, Starmer. I had no intention of focussing on the gloom this year - and I must seek out brighter topics - but so far the POTUS antics beggar belief. It's a longish rant from the Orange Buffoon, but I recommend you take the time to scrutinise and dissect his Greenland tariff "truth" posted yesterday: 
PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA Extraordinary. Does he really write this stuff? If so - and if not - how does it ever make it into print? (Answer: It's social media, innit? His own.) We need to stop believing that it's possible to deal with him, right now. He explicitly dislikes the rule-of-law institutions that underpinned world peace since WWII; does not believe in the USA's role in NATO; despises Europe and the EU; values money above all else; only respects an absolutist exercise of power; is an unpredictable and untrustworthy ally; ... and on it goes. There is no point in trying to cosy up. Our Union-Jack-lampposting neo-patriots are so ploughing the wrong furrow. Their obsession with the word "Great" is valueless, indeed self-harming. The world order has changed and the brute power lies elsewhere. Even the Brexiteer will have to accept that we don't matter that much anymore as an individual nation state - and will need our European neighbours more and more. 
Over the years, frequently on these pages, I've poured scorn on Trump, even dismissed him as a risible has-been. My concern now is that he's going to get away with anything and everything. |
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Saturday 17th January |
Here's the latest UK poll predictor from Electoral Calculus:
How does Reform have such a lead when Farage recruits this lot? 
Have you really begun to imagine this country governed by people like this? |
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Friday 16th January |
Resolutions? I really did intend to write a little every day this year ... and then the madness of Trump shut me down. What can you say? It's all there for us to see, in plain sight.
Marķa Corina Machado gives her Peace prize to Trump. Really? How upside down and back-to-front is that? Jenrick defects to Reform. It's as if Farage is deliberately assembling a bunch of unlikeable, untrustworthy failures and misfits. Knives ready to bury in a colleague's back. A display of all that's bad about politicians. |
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Thursday 1st January |
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Happy New Year, everybody.
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