On Communist Hobgoblins
When Helen Macfarlane produced the first English language translation of The Communist Manifesto she began the text by saying; “A frightful hobgoblin stalks throughout Europe. We are […]
Miscellany
A cry from history: William Benbow and the Grand National Holiday
In Britain we have had, to my counting, three “General Strike moments”. The 1842 Chartist “Plug Plot Riots“, the nine day general strike in 1926 […]
The left needs infrastructure
You don’t have to go back very far to see that ‘once upon a time’ the left had a modest but actually existing infrastructure of […]
The origins of the slate system
This post is the result of a collision of two very narrow interests of mine. The geekery of electoral systems and the Kremlinology of the […]
Let’s end this Christmas Psalms Race
Every year Christmas comes earlier and earlier. It’s still November yet already the shops are adorned with Santas, bells and shallow things that glitter extending […]