Happy pro-active new year – the Tories must go

In 1921, C P Scott, editor of the Manchester Guardian for nearly 50 years, wrote an essay to mark the papers centenary in which he wrote that the “primary office” of a newspaper is accurate news reporting, saying “comment is free, but facts are sacred”. He would likely have abhorred the present time where news […]

So long tax payers and thanks for all your cash

A letter a day to number 10. No 1,502 Monday 25 July 2016. Dear Mrs May, The privatisation of, er, well, everything, reminds me of Douglas Adams’ title of the fourth book in his ‘Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy’ trilogy, ‘So long and thanks for all the fish’… So long tax payers and thanks for […]

Democracy’s highest expression is in people’s direct action

A letter a day to number 10. No 1,451 Wednesday 01 June 2016. Dear Mr Cameron, In an article entitled ‘Election Madness’ in the USA, the late Howard Zinn wrote, “Voting is easy and marginally useful, but it is a poor substitute for democracy, which requires direct action by concerned citizens.” This is by no […]

The Tories are violating our human rights daily

A letter a day to number 10. No 1,436 Tuesday 17 May 2016. Dear Mr Cameron, Power speaking to me is not democracy, authority is not democracy and in order to speak to me it must be legitimate. I am democracy, I speak to power as a right, that is democracy. Write that down and […]

Dealing with Tory inflicted trauma

A letter a day to number 10. No 1,376 Saturday 19 March 2016. Dear Mr Cameron, The trouble with maintaining a lie is that it takes so much work. I have to admit, with no pleasure at all, that you’ve had a good run. The great British public have had to go through the process […]

Life in the Virtual Panopticon

A letter a day to number 10. No 1,269 Saturday 28 November 2015. Dear Mr Cameron, I am sure you know what a Panopticon is – ‘The Panopticon is a type of institutional building designed by the English philosopher and social theorist Jeremy Bentham in the late 18th century. The concept of the design is […]

Forgive me if I die laughing of grief

A letter a day to number 10. No 1,241 Monday 26 October 2015. Dear Mr Cameron, One of the major problems we face in Britain today is cognitive dissonance, the difficulty of holding and resolving conflicting attitudes, beliefs or behaviours. We are all subject to it in a complex world, including the police as I […]

No bread for the quick or the dead, but you’re still expected to work

A letter a day to number 10. No 1,213 Sunday 27 September 2015. Dear Mr Cameron, Contrary to popular opinion in what are laughing called the minds of Tories, we are not ‘the common herd’, nor are we ‘stock’, nor are we beasts of burden to be forced into any job vacancy that becomes available […]

The grey workforce of betrayed and brutalised young people

A letter a day to number 10. No 1,183 Wednesday 19 August 2015. Dear Mr Cameron, Ralph McTell wrote a song, released in 1983, that was inspired from a conversation with Billy Connolly who had watched an Indian Trade Union man address a party political conference with the opening line, ‘A man without a job […]

Britain is not a Tory feudal fiefdom and we are not their vassals

A letter a day to number 10. No 1,130 Saturday 27 June 2015. Dear Mr Cameron, Britain has a profound and distressing problem. The problem is your government and can be put very simply, Britain is not your feudal fiefdom and we are not your vassals. I have, in a long and chequered life, had […]