from the dial-up days

“If I had understood the situation a bit better I should probably have joined the Anarchists.”

— George Orwell

“It takes much longer to get up north, the slow way.”

— Ian Dury

“The internet could be a very positive step… Changes and progress very rarely are gifts from above. They come out of struggles from below.”

— Noam Chomsky

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notes

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writing

  • Someone sent me an anti-burka message recently. It got me thinking, not just about the burka, but about how often this sort of thing isn’t really about clothing at all. It’s about control. Let’s be honest. Most people who complain about the burka aren’t genuinely worried about fabric or face coverings. They’re uncomfortable seeing something

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  • There’s a pattern I keep noticing. Canada lives beside the United States, quietly distinct but always affected by what happens next door. Scotland has a similar relationship with England. Different places, different histories. But the same feeling of being caught in something bigger. Neither country is fully in control of its own path. Both are

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  • I watched 28 Years Later at the cinema today. I went in expecting a zombie film. What I got was something quieter and strangely moving. Yes, there are infected. Yes, there’s horror. But underneath all that is a feeling I didn’t expect. A kind of sadness, and a sense of a country that has lost

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  • Earlier this year, a jury in the United States found Greenpeace liable for 667 million dollars in a lawsuit brought by Energy Transfer, a fossil fuel company behind the Dakota Access Pipeline. The case was not about justice. It was about intimidation. Energy Transfer used what is known as a SLAPP: a Strategic Lawsuit Against

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  • I come from England.My name is Ireland.I live in Scotland.And the only actual Irish thing about me… is that I order Guinness in the pub. I wasn’t born with this name.I used to carry a different one. It sounded like it might be German, though I’ve never found any trace of German ancestry on that

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  • We did it. Oldham Athletic are back in the Football League. Sunday’s final at Wembley was ridiculous, brilliant, stressful, and completely unforgettable. We came from behind twice. Took it to extra time. And somehow, we came out the other side with the win. I was shouting at the telly, pacing the room, laughing and swearing.

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  • I drove over the new Renfrew Bridge today. It only opened yesterday, but I wanted to give it a shot. It’s been three years in the making, apparently. Cost £114 million. A lot of cones and diversions. Now it’s finally done, linking Renfrew with Yoker across the Clyde. For me, it means less reliance on

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  • My team, Oldham Athletic, have reached the National League play-offs. The match on Wednesday is an eliminator. A one-off play-off game at home to Halifax. Win that, and we’re into the semi-final away at Solihull. Win that, and it’s Wembley on Sunday 1 June, with a place in the Football League on the line. I’m

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  • What are people actually looking forward to if Reform wins the next General Election and forms a government? Is it the generous tax cuts that will inevitably gut public services across the country, leading to the slow dismantling of everything from libraries to local councils, already held together by little more than duct tape and

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  • I heard the old saying again the other day.You catch more flies with honey than with vinegar. It’s one of those phrases that feels too neat to be useful. But it’s stuck with me. I’ve tried vinegar.Sharp words. Cold silences.Avoiding people who rub me the wrong way.It doesn’t do much. You just end up bitter

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