Well Done! You Tolerated This (Final Post)

The wise will start planning for a post-oil future now

…or at the very least a future where high prices place the crucial resource/products created  using oil out of reach of many ordinary consumers. Putting to one side for a moment of the contributions of oil to climate change, ‘Peak Oil’ offers a clue as to why we all need to be concerned about reliance [...]

The Circle of Life, and the Conjoined Circles of Immortality

“…Logic (and therefore probability as a branch of logic) is not concerned with what men do believe, but what they ought to believe, if they are to believe correctly.” – John Venn Back when human beings were human beings, the fear of death and the acknowledgement of one’s own mortality were amongst the main driving [...]

Why the long face? No, it’s not because you’re a horse. It’s because you’re a twat.

A new hobby of mine is going to the local petting zoo and shouting obscenities at the animals which reside there. Most people that I tell this secret to assume that I’m a massive dickhead; some call me a mentally deranged twat, and one even referred to me as a “completely mental fucking cunt”. But, [...]

McLeish Out, al-Zawahiri In

And so, with the end of the football season, the newspapers have once again descended into transfer-window madness. Rather than jetting off to a Caribbean island like the footballers they report upon, the unlucky sporting journalists must be chained to their desks over the summer, and expected to maintain a similar output as the height [...]

Domestic Abuse Doesn’t Get The Attention It Should

Violence against women and girls continues unabated in every continent, country and culture. It takes a devastating toll on women’s lives, on their families, and on society as a whole. Most societies prohibit such violence — yet the reality is that too often, it is covered up or tacitly condoned. — UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon, [...]

But is it Art?

Having allowed this blog to remain dormant for a period of a few months, I decided to check out the NME to see what the kids are into, so I could make a sneering and condescending post to re-affirm my natural feelings of superiority to most people. And I instantly fell in love with this [...]

An (Existentialist) Defence of Football

The goalkeeper’s fear of the penalty It is said that a person often reaches a point in their life when the important things in the universe become patently clear. For most this constitutes a realisation that all but the love of friends, family, and human solidarity, is a petty distraction and ultimately entirely futile. If [...]

Sexual Assault: Two ‘Radical’ Ideas

Imagine if when a man was mugged in the street the prosecuting judge – in his summation of the case – merely said “it’s your fault, you shouldn’t have had money in your pockets”. Or, if a person was burgled and our fictional judge simply opined “you shouldn’t have bought so many nice things, how [...]

Is the EU Reaching the Limits of Enlargement?

It is arguable that the dynamism with which the states of the EU have proceeded with enlargement and integration, has been unparalleled in the history of International Relations. Since its inception in 1951 the EU, which originally entailed a modest agreement on coal and steel production, has evolved into a supranational politico-economic union with its [...]