Beck came to fame in 1994 when the video for his song “Loser” went into heavy MTV rotation in America. It is a sort of novelty tune, a kind of slacker white guy hop hop thing that seemed to accidentally capture the spirit of the times with its chorus of “I’m a loser baby, so […]
Archives for December 2018
Underrated albums and their effect on politics and society, part 4 of 5: “The Power of Lard” by Lard
The first thing to say is that this was described upon release as an EP, which should technically disqualify it from this list. However, the record clocks in at almost 44 minutes, which however you arrange the nomenclature, is a long player by any accepted yardstick. So, it qualifies as far as I’m concerned. That’s […]
Underrated albums and their effect on politics and society, part 3 of 5: “Room to Live” by The Fall
At the end of Part 2, I described The Fall as “kind of obscure”, which I can already foresee will annoy several of you. Well, you may have a social circle who know all about Mark E Smith and his miraculous career, but I can guarantee you that the band is not a household name, […]
Underrated albums and their effect on politics and society, part 2 of 5: “Lanquidity” by Sun Ra
Being a bold creative genius who flouts the rules of society to create art that has little to no commercial value for five decades on the trot takes a lot of balls. Even more so if you were a black man in the southern US in the early part of the 20th century. Sun Ra […]
Underrated albums and their effect on politics and society, part 1 of 5: “The Alice Cooper Show”
Happy Christmas, regular readers. Some of you complain when I talk about anything other than Westminster politics; however, the Commons is in a long recess, and furthermore, Brexit has become so f-ing boring as to be something beyond explicating upon, so here goes something else. Over the Christmas season I will be commenting on albums […]
The final Brexit battle: between no deal and no Brexit, which will win?
The talk this week is of whether “managed no deal” is a real thing (it isn’t, but many are clinging to the idea for political reasons) and wanting the holiday season to come, the latter at least partly because “managed no deal” discussions have worn on everyone’s sanity. I figured May would have come out […]
What happens now with the vote Labour has called (or not called) which may (or may not) be a “no confidence vote”?
Okay, a note at the start to bear with me here. This past month has been the nadir of British parliamentary politics for the last century at the very, very least, and most of what has happened is baffling in the extreme. So, here goes, best I can, I’ll explain where we are. Theresa May […]
May wins the no confidence vote – what happens now? The choices for the country narrow
As predicted by most, May won the no confidence vote last night comfortably, 200-117. Rees-Mogg was in there almost instantly trying to paint it as a loss for the prime minister, but it wasn’t. There is some talk about her authority being weakened: it was dealt a massive blow with the 2017 general election result […]
What would really happen if Brexit didn’t happen? Let’s try and focus on what we know
One of the great political truisms of our age is that if Brexit were to not happen there would be “trouble”. I myself have engaged in this thinking, on this very website on occasion – it’s actually a hard assumption not to naturally fall into, if you’re in the Westminster bubble in any way, shape […]
After last night’s historic votes, this is why Brexit now mostly comes down to what Corbyn does
It was quite the evening in the House of Commons last night. Theresa May was stepping up to debate her Brexit deal with the House – meaning, she had to stand in the middle and hear from all sides how bad most MPs think it is, something she’s signed up to do for four more […]