BY STEWART SLATER The Columnists’ Paradox is that the more one writes, the less one need be read. We all have our relatively fixed biases and a reasonably finite store of stories and references, and it does not take too long (longer than my own writing “career” to date though, obviously…) for those to become sufficiently well-known to readers that they can predict with almost … Continue reading Awfully Clever
BY DAVID EYLES Politics is driven by ideas, culture and events. Ideas and culture may sometimes clash to produce unintended consequences. These consequences, and events from outside the system, will dictate the outcome. The economist and philosopher Nassim Nicholas Taleb used the term ‘black swan event’ to describe those events which occur rarely, and which are not only unexpected but unpredictable by virtue of being … Continue reading Starmer and the Nazgul of Events
BY STEWART SLATER “Trinity’s Burning, Trinity’s BurningFetch the Engine, Fetch the EngineFire, Fire! Fire, Fire!Pour on Petrol, Pour on Petrol”The Gordouli, author and date unknown Gregg Wallace, I think we can now be certain, was not an Oxford man. Had he been so, he would have known that the words above are abuse to be sung at a neighbouring college after abundant alcohol, not advice … Continue reading The Golden Rule
CSM EDITORIAL As readers of this magazine will know very well by now, there is a farmer protest organised for Tuesday 19th November in London. The organisers are claiming, soundly, that the planned rally will “help deliver a strong and clear message to the government while in the heart of London, that family farms and the rural community stand united against the government’s catastrophic Budget.” … Continue reading Met Police Farmer Protest Strategy Backfiring
BY ALEX STORY In modern day Britain, we are allowed to mourn our murdered children, friends or relatives. We are free to be appalled. We are also permitted to lay flowers by the coagulating blood of our kith and kin, as our political leaders walk solemnly towards the farewell postcards and tear-drenched bouquets for a tight minute of contemplative silence, broken only by the incessant … Continue reading Mourning in Silence
BY ALEX STORY “I don’t think there are big issues on which I’ve changed my mind”, said Sir Keir Starmer to Patrick Maguire, then a columnist for the New Statesman, in March 2021. Let us then investigate past patterns of thought to better discern future direction of travel ahead of Starmer’s administration’s first budget. From 1986 to the fall of the Berlin Wall in the … Continue reading Never Changing Your Spots
BY STEWART SLATER “Whereof one cannot speak, thereof one must be silent” wrote Wittgenstein, thereby changing the world. For the “Linguistic Turn” he spawned in philosophy changed the task of the practitioners of his discipline from inventing new entities and processes to explain the world (Plato’s Forms, Hegel’s Dialectic etc.) to ruthlessly weeding out all propositions which failed their test of meaning. That those who … Continue reading Keir’s Class Confusion
BY ALEX STORY There is an old joke about a Dubliner, who is lost in the Irish countryside on his way to his cousin’s wedding. He asks a random farmer for directions. The farmer sucks in his teeth and replies: “I wouldn’t have started from here.” Britain, like the lost Irishman, is where she is. Our country in 2024 is not where we would have … Continue reading We Are Where We Are
BY ALEX STORY In 1972, as the United Kingdom was readying herself to join the European Economic Community, Neil Young released The Harvest, arguably one of his greatest albums. Alabama, a censorious ode to the state’s presumed attachment to the Old South and to “old folks tied in white ropes”, decries her condition. Alabama is a ruin, a heavy load for “the rest of the … Continue reading The Deluded Frog
BY MAX WALLER After the never-ending demonisation and disregard of the working class by the political class ever since the death of Britpop around 1997, it occurs to me that in Starmer’s Soviet Britain, where he’s promised (paraphrasing ‘New Labour’s’ slogan) that ‘things will only get worse’ and not better, the timing of the ten Oasis concerts spread across London, Manchester, Scotland, and Ireland for … Continue reading Don’t Look Back In Anger
CITY GRUMP “We did it !” declares a gleeful Starmer. You did indeed. You helped achieve the second lowest turnout at a General Election since 1885. You and the Conservative Party, at 60% of those who bothered to vote, were the lowest combined percentage vote since 1923. This can only mean one thing. The British have inspected the political physiques of these old Parties and … Continue reading Two Cheeks of a Soggy Bottom
BY STEWART SLATER It has not been an edifying experience. As the country’s carnival of democracy slouches towards its inevitable ending, it is hard to say that it is much better for it. We have learned nothing to make us think well of the political class; they appear, given the amount of obfuscation from both sides, not to think well of the electorate. Britain looks … Continue reading A Foolish Consistency
BY EFFIE DEANS I had never heard of Wilma Brown the former Labour candidate who was suspended for liking various posts on Twitter/X. I had likewise never heard of the person who had gathered the various posts which can be found here. But it is necessary to point out that in most cases the posts liked by Wilma Brown were innocuous, arguable, or true. The … Continue reading The Labour Party Was Wrong To Suspend Wilma Brown
BY SARAH GREENWOOD A response to ‘Labour wants to fully ban fox hunting’ as seen in the newspapers of late. Obviously, the Labour Party hasn’t learned any lessons from its recent history and appears hellbent on making the same mistake that Tony Blair made and came to regret. It appears only Blair regrets anything, because the current wannabe cabinet possesses what they say they don’t … Continue reading Labour’s Countryside Bunkum
BY ALEX STORY The Left is both anti-Semitic and Islamophobic. The first tag is not up for debate. From Marx to Keynes and from Corbyn to the current Labour Party, the antipathy towards Jews is well established. In his little-known pamphlet “On the Jewish Question” written in 1843, Marx, the holy messenger of the Left, tells his followers that the Jew is an egotistical, Mammon … Continue reading Anti-Semitic & Islamophobic
BY STEWART SLATER Karl-Theodor zu Guttenberg is no longer a name to conjure with. But, had history worked out just slightly differently, its bearer would bestride the world if not like a colossus, then almost certainly as the German Chancellor. For, at the turn of the last decade, Karl-Theodor was the coming man – German Defence minister, Focus magazine’s “Man of the Year” for 2010 … Continue reading Mistakes Were Made
BY STEWART SLATER There are numerous similarities between sport and politics. Both have elements of soap opera – “who’s up, who’s down?”, they generally have a winner-takes-all approach and they cater to humanity’s tribal need for moral simplicity – our lot have to beat their lot because we are good and they are evil. But most team sports strictly regulate the movement of players between … Continue reading It’s Fine When We Do It
BY DANIEL JUPP How interesting it was this week to see Keir Starmer stating that his approach is ‘pragmatic rather than ideological’. Those who lack charisma often try to portray themselves as a safe pair of hands. Asserting that you are non ideological is a way of doing this. Yes, I may be boring and you may find yourself falling asleep as I talk to … Continue reading Beware the Bland Candidate
CSM EDITORIAL The lesser of two evils principle is well known. The maxim existed already in Platonean philosophy. In Nicomachean Ethics, Aristotle states: “For the lesser evil can be seen in comparison with the greater evil as a good, since this lesser evil is preferable to the greater one, and whatever preferable is good”. The modern formulation of the principle was popularised by Thomas à … Continue reading Lesser of Two Evils
BY CAPEL LOFFT My Letter of Resignation from the Labour Party: Dear Membership Services and CLP Secretary, I am writing to resign my membership of the Labour Party. I have no illusions that the Labour Party centrally will be interested in why, but for my own sanity I want to put into writing the reasons why. I have been a member of the Labour Party … Continue reading Live Not by Lies
