Some Changes

A few days ago, on the the previous post someone anonymously asked if I was still alive. Hopefully, this will be evidence enough.

The truth of the matter is that I've hit burn out. Part of this is personal. Last year, my mother-in-law unexpectedly and suddenly passed away, and since Christmas my mum has been seriously ill and in and out of hospital. Her recovery has been long and complicated.

Then there is work. Over the last couple of years I've been preoccupied with what Lenin called the purely administrative side of things, and that has allowed for little time to think about scholarly activity and reading new stuff. And then this summer our place announced a raft of redudancies, which included the deletion of my post. Thankfully, following redeployment I've been able to survive but securing this was stressful, tiring, and demanded a lot of work.

And now we come to the politics. It is equally astonishing and unsurprising that this government has overseen the normalisation of the BNP's language from 15 years ago, has heralded anti-asylum seeker protests organised and led by fascist micro-sects as expressing "legitimate concerns", and even today refused to criticise Nigel Farage's plan to seek deals with the Taliban to deport Afghans. This isn't a "they know not what they do" moment, rather Keir Starmer, Morgan McSweeney, and Yvette Cooper have contrived this situation. They've unlocked the cage and stupidly believe they can ride the racist tiger to their own advantage.

This comes on top of what you might call post-hegemonic politics. This government is transparently venal, and the few crumbs it has brushed off its freebie-strewn table - watered down improvements to workers' rights, children's breakfast clubs, reduced NHS waiting times - does nothing to hide the cabinet's chummy relationships with American tech oligarchs and the City. Starmer and friends actually pride themselves on these relationships. And there is the arming an ongoing genocide and providing the Israeli military aerial surveillance from flights out of Cyprus. This is bourgeois politics at its most naked, and requires little in the way of additional comment.

And lastly, there are long-term tendencies in media consumption. Since 2020, audiences here have been in steady decline while, ironically, the popualar appetite for political content has grown. Did people get bored of my banging on about the decline of the Tories? Perhaps. But more likely is the ongoing crowding out of written material by YouTube, TikTok, and podcasting. This wouldn't be as bad if I could track views, but thanks to LLMs continually picking over thousands of blog posts the stats package has become completely unreliable.

Those are your reasons why posts have become rarer than a political principle on the government's front bench. But I don't plan throwing the towel in entirely. The 'some changes' advertised atop this post will, I hope, mean a change from long periods of silence to more frequent posts. But certainly not at the level of recent years.

Yet I don't want to finish this on a downer. Despite the complete moral collapse of mainstream politics, there are reasons to be cheerful. As the consequences of immaterial labour work their way through culture, the establishment and their political retainers in Labour, Reform, and the Tories are increasingly out of step with the lives and outlook of everyday folk. And the most recent manifestation of this disconnect are the huge numbers the Jeremy Corbyn/Zarah Sultana Your Party project has attracted - a potentially mammoth formation that could upend British politics and threaten to undo the class settlement of the last 50 years. With such an historic opportunity knocking, it's not like there's a shortage of things to write about.

The Most Read 20 of 2024

We've handled the skiffy, so as the year draws to a close there are a couple of wrap ups to be wrapped up. There is this blogs traditional dance-music riposte to Jools Holland's annual Hootenanny due on New Year's Eve. But before we go there, it's time to cast our eyes back at the posts that came out top according to this here blog's audience. The most read posts of 2024 more or less reflect the political ups and downs of the year. What came out on top by quite some distance was, weirdly, my resignation from Labour. The rest of the 20 shows this place's readers overdosing on the comings and goings of Keir Starmer and friends. But there were deviations from the Labourist mean, such as a couple of pieces on the "outside left" and the far left's general election interventions. Enough people were interested in what had happened to the Tories to ensure my (incomplete, partial) analysis of why they failed featured, as did some election campaign lowlights and equally abysmal moments from the new government. There will be plenty more of those before the next year runs out, but that's for 2025. Shall we get into what we have now?

1. Leaving Labour
2. Confessions of the Gravediggers
3. The Far Right's Racist Rampage
4. Left of Labour General Election Results
5. The Labour Right's Political Strategy
6. The Far Left and the 2024 General Election
7. Why does Labour Hate Universities?
8. After the Child Benefit Rebellion
9. A Note on Authoritarian Modernisation
10. The Many Problems with The Three-Body Problem
11. The Class Politics of the Tory Collapse
12. Keir Starmer's Reluctant Anti-Fascism
13. Louise Haigh's Resignation
14. The Defence of Douglas Murray
15. Politics after George Galloway's Victory
16. Bottling Clacton
17. Routing the Tories is Good, Actually
18. Dismantling Labour's Base
19. The Sun's Attack on Starmer
20. What is the Point of Morgan McSweeney?

A mega round-up of the most popular posts means an extra helping of bar props from the second hand saloon. Here are a dozen pieces taken from each month that didn't set the world alight, but are still worth your time. Read, share, read them some more, and share them all over again.

January: The Tory Politics of Immigration
February: Why the Tories Won't Confront Islamophobia
March: The Political Uses of Racism
April: Wes Streeting and Ideology
May: Pornography and Partial Subjectivity in Crash
June: The Green Party's Leftism
July: An Ambiguous Triumph
August: Securing the Oligarchy
September: Right Wing Bogeys in Lucifer's Hammer
October: How the Tories Might Win Again
November: Why the Migration to Bluesky Matters
December: The Class Politics of Rising Water Bills

Late last year, I posted about slowing down around these parts and, as promised, the schedule duly slowed. It hasn't harmed audience numbers mind. Perhaps old Lenin was right about that better fewer but better gubbins. Heading into the new year I don't plan on bumping up the posts, unless inspiration strikes, energy fills my creaking body, and the stuff at work isn't clouding the brain as much (little chance of that, alas). But unless my head falls off, this blog isn't disappearing. If you do enjoy what appears here and you are fortunate to have quids to spare there are worse ways of disposing disposal cash than supporting this corner of the internet. If you can't or won't, that's fine. Cop us a follow and a like on Bluesky or Facebook instead!

Pondering Science Fiction

There's a bit of indecision about what my first "proper" science fiction novel was. I remember getting Fred and Geoffrey Hoyle's The Planet of Death as part of a Ladybird promotion in the mid-late 80s. There were the space-based tales from the Choose Your Own Adventure and Fighting Fantasy ranges. But the first "adult" book depends on how you think the cookie crumbles. It was either HG Wells's The War of the Worlds, which was acquired one Christmas in the midst of an obsession with Jeff Wayne's eponymous concept album. Or if you insist on dating modern SF from the mid-1920s, Larry Niven's Ringworld was the first. It was unlike anything I'd seen or read before, and I remember it leaving a peculiar impression. I found the sense of wonder and discovery gripping. But as an adult SF novel I was unprepared for the weird ideas such as the somewhat pervy sex scenes with aliens, which the lead character took to with some enthusiasm. My 14 year old brain didn't know what to make of it. But I pressed on with The Ringworld Engineers and understood even less. Though I cottoned on that Niven's novels were situated in a setting he'd visited time and again in other stories, the reading experience was so unsettling that I wanted to try other SF-themed things that were a little less expansive. Video games offered a more limited, and to my mind, more appealing explorations of possible futures.

As a student my reading was almost exclusively social theory and sociology texts, with the odd SF novel pitched in here and there. Such as Greg Bear's Eon, coincidentally another dumb object novel. I do remember visiting Marge Piercy's Woman on the Edge of Time after one of my lecturers raved about it, and also William Gibson's Neuromancer, which I understood about as well as anything I tried by Jacques Derrida. The only fiction I read with any consistency was the World War series of books by Harry Turtledove. An alternate history where alien lizards from Tau Ceti invade the earth in summer 1942, the scenario worked as a thriller and a war novel before grinding its way through four books to an inconclusive ending. It was enough to get me interested in trying something else, and not long afterwards I gave Iain M Banks's Excession a go, Which also stumped me. And then Peter F Hamilton's breeze block-sized The Reality Dysfunction - the first in his Night's Dawn trilogy. This successfully held my attention as an entry-level SF reader. It was packed with ideas, a fully-realised and believable space opera setting, and - to me, then - an original conceit. Despite each three of its volumes clocking in at over 1,000 pages, the pacing, characterisation, action, and how-the-bloody-hell-is-this-going-to-be-resolved hooked me in.

I only started with mainstream literary fiction 20 years ago, beginning - funnily enough - with an SF novel that is lauded from all quarters: Kurt Vonnegut's Slaughterhouse Five. Since then I've read widely, taken in a lot of classics, and kept up a regular SF intake. As you can see from the occasional What I've Been Readings, it is well represented. But to my thinking, not enough. I've read some of the classics and have my favourites, but there's an ocean of work I was, until recently, ignorant of. I've never read Octavia E Butler, Gene Wolfe, nor Robert Silverberg. My back catalogue is bereft of English and American New Wave. Philip K Dick, Isaac Asimov, and even Arthur C Clarke have barely featured. I intend to remedy these omissions over the coming year by visiting these and other giants of SF. It is the literature of change, and in a time like ours when the social and political imagination is stultified, looking forward might benefit from reading back. This project, if you will, is going to have an impact on blog content, seeing as I'm slowing down the politics commentary.

But to get into the mood, there are a few things worth saying about SF titles I have read this year. Among the acknowledged classics are Christopher Priest's The Prestige, which hoodwinks the reader into thinking it's mainstream literary fiction until the SF element is introduced. It's won plenty of prizes and had a film made, but I still don't think it - or Priest for that matter - get the respect that is deserved. Then there's Walter M Miller Jr's A Canticle for Lebowitz. A series of fixed up shorts threaded together in a post-apocalyptic tale, it ponders the preservation of knowledge, myth-making and dogma, and the warmongering stupidities of power politics. It's cheesy in places what with radioactive mutants knocking about but that does not detract from the book's strengths. Late, but better late than never, was Stanislaw Lem's Solaris. Perhaps the book with the biggest reputation I read this year, it is a touch weirder than I was expecting. But by no means impenetrable or imponderable.

I also finally got round to Peter F Hamilton's latest trilogy, or at least the first in the sequence. As per previous novels, Salvation offers multiple viewpoints and, like his Void trilogy, switches between two distinctly different but linked settings. It involves religious aliens, conspiracy and secret enemies (another well-worn Hamilton theme), and young people training for war. It took me a while to get into, but I'm glad I persevered. 2023 was also the year I read my first Adrian Tchaikovsky. Not his celebrated Children of Time (it's on the list), but his Doors of Eden. If novels can be so characterised, this was easily the most Deleuzian work I've read in years. Stretching across dozens of parallel worlds, it's a polemic against rigid identities and world views and subtly argues that embracing multiplicity is essential not just for a better future, but our survival. More explicitly philosophical was Rian Hughes's The Black Locomotive. Featuring another dumb alien object, this time under London, steam trains and rail hobbyists play a central role in unravelling the mystery of how it got there and what it means. It also features some of the most disturbing aliens recently seen in SF thanks to their ability to manipulate time, consciousness, and memory. Mind bending and unconventional as decent SF should be.

The best SF novel I've read this year left a lingering impression. And that's Jacqueline Harpman's I Who Have Never Known Men. Our unnamed protagonist awakes in a cell she shares with 39 other women. She has no memory of who she is or how she got there, and all she knows are the company of the inmates and the indignities forced upon them by their guards. Then one day an alarm sounds, the screws flee, and by chance the prisoners are able to escape. And what they find outside is a mysteriously empty world. Harpman's book imposes an all-encompassing mystery on her characters as they start exploring, form new, freer relationships with each other, and work to survive. It's bleak, and works as a meditation on making meaning in a meaningless place. I can't recommend it enough.

Why take a turn to SF? Now is a good a time as any, but think about where we are. Poised on the verge of 2024, the political horizon is devoid of hope. Clouded in smoke from the ruins of Gaza, our government and political establishments have openly supported the ethnic cleansing of the Palestinians. This has gone along with more governments overseas falling to the far right, and our domestic scene promises nothing except more of the same. We are in a peculiar moment. The ruling class have dispensed with the usual fairy tales about the realities of bourgeois politics and seemingly don't care that capitalism and big power interests are striding about the world stage, naked. This offers our class opportunities not just to contest their rules of the game, but think about our alternatives. We're good at the how we live part, less so on the how we might. By spending less time on the day-to-day of politics and more on the politics of thinking through possible futures, this blog could make a small contribution to re-imagining the 21st century and making it a time fit to be alive in.

This Here Blog

It's been a quiet time in this corner of the internet lately. The continuous stream of posts have stopped. The rapid succession of takes on the latest Tory traumas, or the slippery emptiness of Starmerism have not arrived with their customary rapidity. And there's a very simple reason for it. I cannot write at the pace that has sustained this place for most of its existence any more. It's not only tiring having to wade through the same politics bullshit day after day and then spend a couple of hours most evenings fashioning something coherent to say. It's trying, and I've had more than enough of my fill.

This site started out as a few musings about the experience of doing a PhD, and quickly moved into offering commentary on politics and culture from a critically-minded Trot point of view. The blog built a following during the fag end of the Blair/Brown years, and after an 18 month hiatus came back as a soft left partisan of Labour loyalism. And it stayed that way until experiencing the pathetic, treacherous politics of the Labour right while reading (well after publication) Hardt and Negri's Empire trilogy. These effectively re-radicalised me and gave my writing an energy and a clear sightedness that saw me all the way through to the beginning of this year. It was then the compulsion to keep going started fading, as hinted at previously. And sadly, as the year comes to a close I've reluctantly concluded I don't have the energy to maintain this as I have. Other things need attention, like finding the head space for the work projects on my plate, thinking about the research I want to do, keeping up with sociology of power/politics literature, and finding time for living a life and doing other things.

Now what? It's probably going to return to what it meant to be in the first place - an occasional sounding board. A place for jottings, a place for pinning up pieces published elsewhere, a place for rarer longer screeds not immediately about politics and, yes, a place again for regular posting if the mood occasions and situation demands. We're now entering the long afternoon of the blog's existence, and one led at a leisurely pace. I'm not shutting up shop. The blog isn't going into retirement. But it will spend more time reclining on the sun lounger taking in a good book, occasionally casting an eye over the scene, and muttering to anyone who'll listen about the poolside goings-ons.

Celebrating 4,000 Posts

It has taken three years, two months, and one week to get here but we can lay down another milestone. This is the 4,000th post! Arguably I'd have reached this sooner without Covid and if our house hadn't been invaded by an unruly stray cat who decided to stay. But still, 4,000 posts. And what a time this has spanned. When we hit the 3,000 mark Donald Trump was in the White House, and Theresa May faced Jeremy Corbyn across the dispatch box. Brexit was an intractable political mess that would never be resolved, we were ignorant of something called Covid-19, the notion Russia would invade Ukraine was preposterous, and the idea of having a proper book written and published was a pipe dream.

To mark this ridiculous occasion, which was never entertained when I began blogging 15 years ago, in reverse order here are most-read 100 posts since 8th March, 2019:

100. The Whys and Wherefores of Keith (December 2020)
99. How the Tories Smashed Stoke Labour (January 2020)
98. If Remain Had Won (December 2020)
97. The Tories Are Winning the Necropolitics (September 2020)
96. Retirement at 75? It's About Class, Stupid (August 2019)
95. Cancelling Tom Watson (September 2019)
94. On Hammering the Left (June 2020)
93. On Tory Incompetence and Stupidity (October 2020)
92. The Green Threat to Labour (February 2021)
91. Why is Labour Ignoring the Teaching Unions? (January 2021)
90. Marxists for Liberalism (September 2019)
89. Why Farage Snubbed Galloway (May 2019)
88. Facing Up to the CHUK Up (July 2019)
87. Trump and the Tory Imaginary (June 2019)
86. Ten Points on Trump's Attempted Coup (January 2021)
85. On Tim Roache's Resignation (April 2020)
84. Adios (March 2019)
83. Thinking and Chewing Gum (April 2019)
82. Covid is Killing Britons Faster than WWII (January 2021)
81. The BBC's Anti-Corbyn Hit Job (July 2019)
80. Keir Starmer's Pathetic Witch Hunt (July 2021)
79. The Uses of Captain Tom (February 2021)
78. Remembering Simon Speck (April 2019)
77. Starmerism and Fabianism (January 2021)
76. Why Isn't Keir Starmer 20 Points Ahead? (January 2021)
75. Dear Lisa Nandy (February 2020)
74. Keir-azy For You: Why Starmer Leads (January 2020)
73. Dear Jo Swinson (October 2019)
72. The Labour Politics of Backing the Brexit Deal (December 2020)
71. What is John McDonnell Playing At? (October 2019)
70. The Zoomers and Class Politics (August 2020)
69. How to Screw Up a Leadership Election (January 2020)
68. The Right Wing Defence of Starmerism (February 2021)
67. Boris Johnson and Thatcherism (February 2021)
66. Communism as Public Luxury (June 2019)
65. Opposition as Colourless Managerialism (August 2020)
64. Chuka Umunna and the Liberal Democrats (June 2019)
63. The Silences of John Harris (January 2020)
62. Margaret Hodge's Attack on Unite (June 2021)
61. The End of Theresa May (May 2019)
60. A Note on Ruthlessness (January 2021)
59. Veering to the Right (September 2019)
58. Esther McVey and the Working Class (May 2019)
57. The Long-Term Decline of the Tories (August 2019)
56. Caroline Flack and Social Murder (February 2020)
55. On Jeremy Corbyn's Defence Fund (July 2020)
54. The Moral Turpitude of Cllr Ally Simcock (August 2020)
53. Why I've Left the Labour Party (November 2020)
52. The Curious Case of Tom Watson (August 2019)
51. Stoke's Racist Lord Mayor (June 2020)
50. Losing Long-Time Labour Members (November 2020)
49. The BBC's Anti-Labour Bias (November 2019)
48. The Demonology of Jeremy Corbyn (December 2019)
47. Stanning for Corbyn and Other Twitter Tribes (August 2019)
46. John McDonnell: Be Nice to Keir (August 2020)
45. Labour and the New Working Class (January 2020)
44. How May Could Have Won (May 2019)
43. The Liberal Democrats' Worst Nightmare (August 2019)
42. Is This the End for Boris Johnson? (September 2019)
41. The Left and Keir Starmer (April 2020)
40. Obligation and Class Consciousness (July 2020)
39. Brexit and the ERG (March 2019)
38. Corbynism and the Second Referendum (June 2019)
37. On Corbynphobia (August 2019)
36. What is the Great Reset? (November 2020)
35. Defending Decayed Democracy (April 2019)
34. Boris Johnson and 21st Century Class Politics (December 2019)
33. Why Labour Isn't Serious About Winning (March 2021)
32. The Problem With Old People (November 2019)
31. Saying the Quiet Part Out Loud (November 2020)
30. Whither the One Per Centrists? (April 2019)
29. The Class Politics of the Indicative Votes (April 2019)
28. On Labour's Poll Collapse (February 2021)
27. A Cultural Sociology of Mass Stupidity (September 2020)
26. Is Politics Melting Down? (May 2019)
25. The Miserable Collapse of Jess Philips (January 2020)
24. Finance Capital and the Conservative Party (September 2019)
23. Is a New Conservative Party Possible? (April 2019)
22. Critiquing the Anti-Lockdown Left (December 2021)
21. The Newport West By-Election (April 2019)
20. Ian Lavery Should Not Stand (December 2019)
19. Sympathy for Gavin Williamson (May 2019)
18. Why Labour Went Backwards in Stoke (May 2019)
17. Why Do the Tories Hate the Arts? (October 2020)
16. Priti Patel, the Tories, and the Death Penalty (December 2020)
15. Theresa May and the Death of the Tory Party (March 2019)
14. The Weakness of Starmerism (July 2020)
13. The Demise of Caroline Lucas (August 2019)
12. The Tory Food Parcel Scam (January 2021)
11. Keir Starmer's Falkirk Moment (April 2020)
10. Why Do the Tories Want to Cut Furlough Payments? (May 2020)
9. Against the New Corbyn Coup (July 2019)
8. After Jo Swinson (December 2019)
7. One Abysmal Year of Keir (April 2021)
6. Labour's Crisis of Decomposition (March 2019)
5. The Problems With Jess Phillips (January 2020)
4. The Genius of Dominic Cummings (October 2019)
3. Obsolete Politics and the Socialist Party Split (June 2019)
2. On Lefties for Farage (April 2019)
1. The Working Class Politics of Brexit (December 2019)

What would you know, it's not a Jeremy Corbyn fest! Politically, I think the list fairly reflects the struggles and clashes of the last three years: Brexit, Covid, Starmerism, Boris Johnson's Tories. It's all there, along with a smattering of theory pieces, explainers, and character assassinations from a solidly pro-labour movement, pro-working class perspective. But this is not about being a celebratory ego fest. This blog has always been a collective effort, and so to those who occasionally "lend" me their content via freely taken podcasts, videos, music, and guest posts - many thanks!

Whatever next? More of the same, alas! Readers might have noticed a decreasing frequency of posts of late, and so perhaps I'll take things a little easier and read more books, play more games, and do more writing for elsewhere. It all depends on motivation, time, head space, and other demands. But right now, I'd like to thank all readers, the regular and the infrequent alike for giving me the motivation to keep plugging away. Here's to the next thousand!

Patreon is Go!

Thanks to all the comrades who fed back on my ummings and ahhings about whether to set up a Patreon or not. If you're reading this on a conventional monitor, your eyes will have noticed the Become a Patron button just to the right of the screen. And if you're on a mobile or some other device, here is where the Patreon lies. Along with a photo of me.

There are three tiers based on monthly contributions. A quid, a fiver, or a tenner. Donate as much as you like, or donate nothing. It's entirely up to you. Following what folks said, there is no paywall nor will there ever be. All posts will be public. There are no privileges a monthly donation affords, apart from a warm fuzzy feeling. I might think again if MacKenzie Scott visits some philanthropy on this site and requests a learned post on a pet topic in exchange for a substantial, regular contribution.

Because some people get a bit sticky with the platforms they use (hence why Facebook and its ridiculous evolution to "Meta" tries to be an internet within the internet), the Patreon won't be idle. Everything will happen here as before. The posts on the Tories. The Keir Starmer content I know you love. Occasional forays into the far left, old video games, and lazy night dance music posts. The very rare longer piece. What Patreon will get, again pubicly available for all to see, will be a weekly digest of activities on here and other things I've been up to. All being well, this should come out every Sunday.

Why Patreon? As Phil mentioned in the comments, there are alternatives. True enough. But I've gone for practicality. Just as Facebook is an unavoidable site the discerning blogger has to deal with to disseminate their stuff, Patreon is the most well-used subscription site. More people donate to leftwing media through the platform than any other, save perhaps direct donations. I'm no vanguardist. Just like the Labour Party, I'm pandering to the crowd in the hope fortune will come my way.

There's nothing more to be said. If you carry on reading and donate, great. If you carry on reading and don't donate, also great. Just keep reading!

To Grift or Not to Grift?

A quick gauge of opinion this evening. For a long time, I've been umming and ahhing about introducing a Patreon for this place. In case you stopped following internet trends when Netscape was king, this is a platform through which you can make donations to or pay for paywalled content from your favourite content creators. They're all the rage and nearly everyone in the online comment game has one, so why not here too?

As long-time readers know, this place has slogged on for 15 years now and could well do for another 15, health and the state of the world permitting. And everything that has appeared here is free to view, and always will be. But what do folks think about the introduction of pay-what-you-like, as seen on other blogs and left media? And if I did attach a Patreon to this place, what additional features or topics might you like to see? For example, one thing I would think about doing, following a suggestion from James of The Popular Show, would be making verbal recordings of blog posts available via the Patreon (these would not be paywalled). As for using a paywall, this is probably something I would not ever use. Information yearns to be free, man. Maybe if I'd written a large piece I might have it on early access for a week before reposting it here. Not sure yet. And as far as the Patreon's supporter tiers are concerned, there's a debate to be had about what perks to offer - perhaps requesting an article on a particular topic, or asking a question that requires a post-length response, my opinion on such-and-such, or something else entirely? Nothing is set in stone.

To grift or not to grift, that is the question. Monies raised would go to the need-a-new-computer fund, and if wildly successful I might be able to step back from some work responsibilities and devote more time to writerly pursuits.

None of this is decided so I'd be interested in hearing people's views. Got to love me some feedback. But if you like the stuff I do, there is one concrete way to help out already and get something other than a good feeling in return. And that's by buying the book!

Revisiting Harry's Place

Fancy a deep dive into the blogging wars of the pre-Corbyn left? Of course you do. In this episode of Reel Politik, Jack and Geraint pop along to the cemetery and dig up an old adversary: Harry's Place. Long time hangers-ons of the British left will remember the role this blog, now a shadow of what once was, had in drawing together the pro-war "left" before, during and after the Iraq War. They were self-appointed arbiters of political decency (hence the term, 'decents') who fulminated against anyone concerned with stopping the UK government's penchant for wars as well as critics of Israel, and played a mobilising role in putting together the now (largely forgotten) Euston Manifesto. For those of you who weren't around, imagine the meltiest centrism combined with the scurrilousness of Gnasher Jew and you've got a good idea of their positioning and output. Which included publishing people's addresses and trying to get them sacked from their jobs. Charming.

This place never got on their radar back in the day because the focus has never really been foreign policy and Israel, but I did write about HP on a couple of occasions: for the anniversary of the UK Left Network discussion list, and to mark their decade of "service".

Jack and Geraint make a persuasive case that HP was the progenitor of much of the Corbynphobic hysteria we've witnessed issue forth from all quarters these last four years. And there's going to be a part two too! Highly recommended.

As with all podcasts, Reel Politik could do with your support, so please follow it on Twitter here and please consider supporting via Patreon here.

Celebrating 3,000 Posts

Another blogging milestone. It's taken almost three-and-a-half years to chalk up another thousand posts, but we made it. 3,000, the big 3,000. Yes, it's enough blog posts which, if laid end to end, would stretch from Land's End to John O'Groats and back. Or fill several hundred Blu Rays. Ridiculous, no?

Here then for your pleasure and mine are the top ten most-read blogs from 4th October, 2015 to the present day.

10. Besmirching Labour's Name (July 2018)
9. Yvette Cooper's Alternative Vision (July 2017)
8. A Terrible Stalinist Purge (March 2018)
7. Why I Voted for Jeremy Corbyn (September 2016)
6. Reluctant Corbynism (August 2016)
5. Toby Young and the Taming of Higher Education (January 2018)
4. Suspend Labour Friends of Israel (May 2018)
3. The Bourgeois Politics of the People's Vote March (October 2018)
2. Guido Fawkes: Troll and Hypocrite (October 2017)
1. Owen Jones and Naive Cynicism (March 2017)

Hardly a shock to find dispatches from Labour's civil war featuring so prominently. The story of these posts are, more or less, the story of Corbynism too. This is a big improvement as last time, lists of things (blogs, musics) ruled the roost. No far left gossip either, thankfully. I guess the old dialectical laws are true: quantity passes over into quality eventually. Nevertheless, there are some highlights you might have missed that you haven't had the chance to check out. So what better time than now?

After Neoliberalism (August 2016)
Beyond Class and Identity Politics (August 2017)
Class Struggle and the Common (August 2017)
Fascism and Economic Anxiety (August 2017)
Jeremy Corbyn and the Working Class (July 2017)
Party Before Country (February 2019)
Racism and Capitalist Exploitation (July 2017)
The Thatcherite Offensive (February 2019)
Theorising Conservative Catastrophe (May 2018)
Whitney Houston: Celebrity and Alienation (September 2017)

What will the next thousand bring, assuming this blog will be around to mark its 4,000th entry? There's only one way of finding out ... and that's by staying tuned.

The Most Read 18 of 2018

As we turn the page on the year 2018, let's have a look back at the posts that commanded the most attention. And perhaps a few that need a little bit more love.

1. Suspend Labour Friends of Israel
2. The Bourgeois Politics of the People's Vote March
3. Toby Young and the Taming of Higher Education
4. A Terrible Stalinist Purge
5. Besmirching Labour's Name
6. Enemies to the Left
7. On the Campaign Against Corbyn
8. Corbynism and Anti-Semitism
9. The Cloying Desperation of the Tory Press
10. Is it Okay to Like Morrissey?
11. Owen Jones vs the British Media Establishment
12. No One is Above the Party
13. 10 Points on Russia and Russian Politics
14. The Conservative Party's Eugenics Problem
15. Frank Field: An Anti-Eulogy
16. Labour NEC Fallout
17. No Labour Exit from Brexit
18. Can Blairism Win Back the Labour Party?

Once again Labour factionalism dominates the list. If the right behaved themselves and learned to be a constructive opposition, then I might not write about them as much. Nevertheless, happy to see a couple of pieces about the Tories get in there, but there is definitely a case for more variety. And who knows, as 2019 is the year of Brexit perhaps there will be more diversity as I'm forced to cover soup kitchens, wheel barrows full of fivers, cultivating carrots in window boxes and other fun topics. Also, in my projection of work I've got a few articles and book chapters to get done before the biggie: writing the book plan and a couple of sample chapters. Hopefully life won't get in the way too much!

No predictions again for 2019, I've learned my lesson. But there were some pieces deserving more of your time that didn't make the end of year list. For some weird reason I quite enjoyed writing this pair of pieces about the dismal 'blue' Marxism of Jon Cruddas, and I tried writing about Deleuze too. You be the judge of how well I did. Perhaps I should also do more writing on telly, because, again, writing about A Very English Scandal was good fun, as was throwing down a few scribbles about French cop drama Spiral. I almost wrote something about the summer's reality TV hit, Circle, but there was too much scabbing in the Labour Party going on demanding of words and time.

Okay, that's more or less me done for 2018. All that remains is sorting out my top ten dance tunes for the year and then ... rest. Until tomorrow morning at least, when 2019 brings in more of the same.

Top 100 Independent Tweeting Bloggers 2017

Cue the Pearl & Dean music. Yes, another year has gone and the beginning of the next calendar coincides with a reflection on who's hot and who's not in the world of independent political blogging, at least as far as Twitter is concerned. In case you're a newbie, here are the rules. This is not a "best of". This is not a reflection of people I agree with, think write well, or another arbitrary classifying schema. It is, as per the list of tweeting political commentators, a simple rank ordering by the number of Twitter followers. But independent? How is that defined? It is a blogger who posts regularly on matters political to their corner of the web or, fuzzing it a bit, an outlet independent of the big media organisations and parties. So, for example, The Canary is an independent outfit and so gets on. LibDem Voice is semi-official, but is a voluntary operation and so gets on. I'm sure you get the picture. Likewise, there are a few big media stars on here but, again, make the list because they maintain their own outlets. Last of all, there is a six week rule applied here. If you haven't posted anything in that time you don't make it, simple as that.

Okay, without further ado ...

1. (1) Owen Jones (725k followers)
2, (RE) Paul Mason (574k followers)
3. (2) Alastair Campbell (425k followers)
4. (3) Guido Fawkes (242k followers)
5. (4) Britain Elects (164k followers)
6. (5) Iain Dale (107k followers)
7. (5) Left Foot Forward (65.5k followers)
8. (NE) The London Economic (58.8k followers)
9. (10) Open Democracy (58.6k followers)
10. (18) The Canary (53.9k followers)
11. (7) Wings Over Scotland (53.8k followers)
12. (8) Bella Caledonia (52k followers)
13. (15) Scott Nelson (51.2k followers)
14. (11) Political Scrapbook (47.9k followers)
15. (13) Richard Murphy (46.3k followers)
16. (12) The F-Word (45.3k followers)
17. (14) Mike Smithson (44k followers)
18. (9) Nick Tyrone (41.4k followers)
19. (16) Ann Petifor (39.8k followers)
20. (NE) Aaron Bastani (39.8k followers)
21. (17) Coppola Comment (35.5k followers)
22. (33) Novara Media (35.3k followers)
23. (26) Jon Worth (34.2k followers)
24. (19) Steve Topple (30.7k followers)
25. (27) Libcom (27.9k followers)
26. (32) Craig Murray (26.8k followers)
27. (20) Exposing UKIP (25.8k followers)
28. (24) Another Angry Woman (25.4k followers)
29. (25) Pride's Purge (25.4k followers)
30. (30) Neil Clark (25.3k followers)
31. (73) The SKWAWKBOX (25k followers)
32. (23) UK Media Watch (24.2k followers)
33. (RE) Kerry-Anne Mendoza (23.6k followers)
34. (28) LibDem Voice (22.4k followers)
35. (36) Richard Seymour (21.3k followers)
36. (38) Mainly Macro (21k followers)
37. (35) Angela Neptustar (20.3k followers)
38. (39) Paul Bernal (19.8k followers)
39. (NE) Shon Faye (19.5k followers)
40. (NE) Another Angry Voice (18.7k followers)
41. (31) Labour Uncut (18k followers)
42. (34) Archbishop Cranmer (17.9k followers)
43. (41) Sarah Ditum (16.9k followers)
44. (NE) Matt Turner (16.5k followers)
45. (72) SCOT goes POP! (16.2k followers)
46. (40) Lallands Peat Worrier (15.8k followers)
47. (46) Tim Bale (15.5k followers)
48. (49) Glen O'Hara (15.4k followers)
49. (NE) Evolve Politics (15k followers)
50. (47) Eric Joyce (14.8k followers)
51. (NE) Talk Politics (13.4k followers)
52. (45) Big Brother Watch (13.2k followers)
53. (RE) The Optimistic Patriot (13k followers)
54. (42) The Commentator (12.6k followers)
55. (66) Filibuster (12k followers)
56. (48) Mark Pack (11.9k followers)
57. (55) Chelley Ryan (11.5k followers)
58. (51) Zelo Street (10.8k followers)
59. (54) Kevin Hague (10.4k followers)
60. (RE) Karen Ingala Smith (10.3k followers)
61. (52) Left Futures (9,583 followers)
62. (NE) Lily of St Leonards (9,508 followers)
63. (57) 5 Pillars (9,474 followers)
64. (50) Kate Belgrave (9,353 followers)
65. (61) Chris Dillow (9,004 followers)
66. (53) David Hencke (8,866 followers)
67. (60) Flip Chart Fairy Tales (8,769 followers)
68. (62) A Dragon's Best Friend (7,513 followers)
69. (70) Emma Burnell (7,158 followers)
70. (NE) Katie S (6,951 followers)
71. (65) Vox Political (6,905 followers)
72. (64) All That's Left (6,660 followers)
73. (75) Who Owns England? (6,659 followers)
74. (69) All That Is Solid (6,561 followers)
75. (67) Bright Green (6,186 followers)
76. (NE) New Socialist (6,083 followers)
77. (76) A Room Of Our Own (5,964 followers)
78. (71) Tim Worstall (5,947 followers)
79. (NE) Tom Gann (5,768 followers)
80. (74) Liberal England (5,643 followers)
81. (80) Language: A Feminist Guide (5,268 followers)
82. (78) Rob Marchant (5,121 followers)
83. (81) Revolution Breeze (5,019 followers)
84. (82) Cllr Alice Perry (4,709 followers)
85. (87) Hatful of History (4,491 followers)
86. (86) Bob from Brockley (4,347 followers)
87. (83) Think Left (4,272 followers)
88. (RE) Neil Scott (4,115 followers)
89. (84) Sarah Brown (4,041 followers)
90. (NE) Ungagged! (4,017 followers)
91. (NE) The Prole Star (3,705 followers)
92. (91) The Thoughtful Campaigner (3,653 followers)
93. (90) Dick Puddlecote (3,574 followers)
94. (94) Wendy Errington (3,207 followers)
95. (98) The Nation Said No Thanks (3,098 followers)
96. (92) Liberal Burblings (3,010 followers)
97. (95) Labour Hame (2,774 followers)
98. (93) Sarah Ismail (2,772 followers
99. (100) John Gray (2,749 followers)
100. (99) Ambush Predator (2,428 followers)

Time for the science bit? Well, what's interesting is the return of five folks to the chart who'd previously stopped blogging. Obviously word had got round and thought it necessary to push something out in time for this tally. On top of them there's 13 new entries, which is far fewer than last year. Have we reached that point in the cycle where blogging is plateauing, and those still in the less glamorous game of writing for yourself is down to the hardcore? I haven't a clue but one thing's true, newer blogs are getting thinner on the ground.

Yes, this is a provisional list. So if there are others you can think of that haven't made this list and do meet the criteria set out in the opening paragraph, and have more followers than those on the bottom of the list do let me know and it shall be duly updated.

The Most Read 17 of 2017

I'm going to break with the rest of comment land in its fashionable declaration of 2017 as awful. Sure, Donald Trump sits gurning away in the White House, politics is a toxic mess and more beloved celebrities shuffled off this mortal coil. But as we sit at the end of 2017 versus this time last year, there are reasons to be optimistic. Suddenly, the green shoots of a better future are starting to push through the mulch of ages. In New Zealand, a left wing Labour government self-consciously modelled on the British example is in power. In Italy, the young are beginning to turn away from the rancid petit bourgeois and establishment-friendly radicalism of Beppe Grillo's Five Star Movement to the left. In Iran, mass protest is stirring once more, whereas Russia has seen more than a few. Trump is catalysing the opposition against the Republicans and socialism walks anew in the home of the brave. And in Britain, not only was a seemingly impregnable Tory government destroyed and laid low by the pettiest infighting, and is groping toward a soft Brexit in defiance of its rhetoric, an avowedly left wing Labour Party with a leftist leader confounded all expectations and gave Labour its best election result for 20 years, sparking a resurgence of socialist thought and touching off the biggest radicalisation since the early 1980s.

There are problems to be sorted and difficulties to face down. Our opponents are at sixes and sevens but they're not defeated yet. If 2016 was the nadir of the post-crash era, I would suggest 2017 was the year the corner was turned. Still a long way to go but for the first time in a long time the vistas are clear and things are moving our way.

As we reflect back on the last year then, this is what the blog said as arranged by what you, the reader, visited most often. I hope you enjoy the trip down memory lane.

1. Owen Jones and Naive Cynicism
2. Guido Fawkes: Troll and Hypocrite
3. Yvette Cooper's "Alternative Vision"
4. Explaining Laura Kuenssberg's Bias
5. On the Doors in Stoke Central
6. Jeremy Corbyn and the Working Class
7. May vs Corbyn: The Verdict
8. Leaders' Question Time: Who Won?
9. Happy Birthday Marx's Capital
10. On Labour's "Sexist" Industrial Strategy
11. The Left Unity Masturbation at Work Thread
12. Thank You Chuka Umunna
13. Five Reasons Why a New Centre Party is a Stupid Idea
14. Corbynism and Scottish Labour
15. The Stupidity of Jeremy Hunt
16. What is the Dementia Tax?
17. A Political Guide to Stoke-on-Trent

Last year's list was dominated by getting to grips with what Jeremy Corbyn and Corbynism represented. This year the focus shifted to the frenzy of factional struggle, the full-bloodied combat of fraught electioneering and partisan assault. But the appetite for ideas remain. Could a short post celebrating Capital have charged into this year's top ten before the events of the last 12 months? Might a contribution explaining the rise of Corbynism in relation to the changing nature of class have commanded the scene as much as the one listed above has done?

I'm not going to make any forecasts for the coming year because, well, I have a post coming up on the politics of prediction. However, while this has been the best year ever in terms of audience views the numbers are probably going to take a cut in 2018. From time to time I've said the pace of the blogging would be slowing down and yet, lo, another 300 posts are served up by year's end. Unfortunately there are a lot of projects I'm working on on the sociology of Corbynism, the nature of politics, and more besides and something has got to give. Then again, who knows, it might be a case of better fewer but better, at least where visiting figures are concerned.

Anyway, have a happy new year and see you next year. Which is in fewer than 24 hours.

New Left Blogs August/December 2017

At the Sociological Review's social media conference at Goldsmith's yesterday, there was a bit of a discussion around how blogging allows for more reflective (and editable!) forms of online engagement than the instapundit temptations of other social media. Unfortunately, blogging - once heralded the nemesis of the media - is a declining pursuit clung to by windbags and weirds; this place being a case in point. Hence why the roll call of new left blogs and bloggers is spread more thinly across the year and has fewer to show for it. Shame. All the more reason to give these hardy souls a plug.

1. Katie S (Unaligned) (Twitter)

2. Leak of Nations (Unaligned) (Twitter)

3. The Avenger (Unaligned) (Twitter)

4. The Red Roar (Labour) (Twitter)

If you know of any new(ish) blogs that haven't featured before then drop me a line via the comments, email, Facebook, or Twitter. Please note I'm looking for blogs that have started within the last 12 months. The new blog round up appears when there are enough new blogs knocking around.

Can You Help?

All That Is Solid

Don't you just love Facebook? By 'love', I actually mean hate. And because of them I am forced to come cap in hand to you.

Since June I've regularly shared material from this blog via Facebook. I like to think the odd interjection of hard thinking from the hard left has helped brighten a few timelines amid pictures of dinner, rubbish memes and selfies. This has been done by sharing posts via the All That Is Solid Facebook page and posted onto an array of politics groups, most of which are Labour and pro-Corbyn. 

Yes, there is no point in lying, these efforts were about building the readership. And they are necessary. The semi-conspiratorial thinking and unreflective partisanship of of the new left media are not showing much sign of advancing an analysis beyond he-said/she-said and examples of Tory hypocrisy. As The Canary's proprietor herself has said, they consciously aim for the reading comprehension age of an eight year old. At this juncture of a growing and confident movement, we must go beyond this pretty drab goodies vs baddies fare.

The hunger for deeper, thoughtful contributions and takes on the state politics is presently too small. If we are to realise the potency of this moment it has to grow. Via Facebook groups, this blog has started reaching a larger audience. And as they grow so more people are being persuaded of the necessity for a materialist, sociological approach to understanding the world. Except Facebook has decided for the third time to prevent me from sharing material to these groups. Their latest ban is due to expire in 12 days' time. There is no appeal, no - according to Facebook themselves - way of reversing the ban, and no accountability whatsoever.

Therefore I need assistance, again. As per my previous appeal, you can keep your purses and wallets in their usual resting place. There's no need to click through to your PayPal account. To get around the blockade, the blog needs your likes, your shares, and your follows. Can you help?

Who's Heard of UnHerd?

Unless you're totally plugged into the circuits of the Westminster world and its media bubble, you may have missed the soft launch of Tim Montgomerie's latest venture: UnHerd. Befitting a super serious outfit with offices in The Shard no less, it's pitched at "readers who choose the important to the new". This is reinforced by the pun-tastic monicker hung on the blog. In the bedazzling mediascape of the disposable hot take, UnHerd is opposing itself against the grain and offering what largely goes unheard: decent analysis backed with evidence and good writing. And it's un-herd because UnHerd writers and readers are are invited to refuse the company of the herd and do their own unfashionable thang.

A look at the folks recruited to help in Tim's efforts are none other than the likeable but vacuous Ruth Davidson, novelist Lionel Shriver, Jonathan Aitken, and snoring, boring bigot, Douglas Murray. The rest are a mix of up and comers, wannabes, and wonks. Basically, Tim has whipped out his mobile and tapped up those he thinks worthy of sinecure. It just so happens all of them, without exception, are part of the established pecking order of media comment too.

What then is the point? It's all very well having a product, but it needs to find an audience. In this regard UnHerd is arranging its output along five themes - Flyover country deserves a new deal, Religion is relevant (even if you don't believe), The end is (not) nigh, The tech industry mustn't own our futures, and Western capitalism must work for the many. If you're one of two people having a sense of de ja vu, these are concerns Tim ran with in his now defunct Good Right project. He's one of the few Tories that understand the class and the state of affairs they defend is imperilled and saving the show means giving a more freebies to the punters. Hence why the roster of writers run from Murray through to James Bloodworth. All, regardless of what you might think of their arguments, have written on the problems of capitalism and the state and all have something a rebooted Toryism might want to pinch. If only they had someone who could run with it half-convincingly.

Unfortunately for Tim, I don't think this project has much of a future. His big problem is the age of the superblog is done. If you go back to when blogging was in its infancy, it did happen and it did work. Conservative Home and LabourList assembled their great and the good to get the projects off the ground. Likewise Sunny Hundal's Liberal Conspiracy followed a similar approach. However, these were the only ones that made it for any length of time. The first two remain with us as the semi-official blogs of their respective parties, where as Sunny officially called time on LibCon in 2013. The only proven way for superblogs of big names to work is if they have an established media brand behind them. In the first few years of this decade it was they who vacuumed up the blogging celebs and signed them to their digital platforms. Those that have trod the trail UnHerd are on have not found bountiful pastures at the end, but the abattoir. The Good Right, gone. Byline? Who cares. CapX? Ditto. In each and every case, despite some "names" being involved they're very much less than the sum of their parts.

UnHerd then. A bit like Band Aid, minus the charidee. And largely missing the talent.