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ACADEMY "U TURN AND TURN AGAIN
So we had a U Turn on enforced school acadamisation that lasted - ooh, er, a fortnight as such.Now its back - but for "poorer areas" only. So the plebs will have their kids educated by a motley...
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FE FALL OUT AND COLLEGE CONTORTIONS ON TEESSIDE
You may - if you were eagle eyed enough - have spotted a reference in the Gazette and the Echo last week to future merger moves between local colleges of FE and local Sixth Form colleges. Eagle...
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NO MUDDIED OAFS HERE
Sorry - but in an increasingly dark political world, the sight of beer fuelled buffoons and lagered up lunatics trying to trash French towns, and chanting "we don't want you - we're voting out" just...
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Thoughts on Brexit: a reactionary moment?
England, Scotland, Britain, Teesside, Yorkshire ... identity politics writ large. The univeralizing politics of class which underpinned the post-war consensus from 1945-79 looks to be dead and buried....
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THE PASSING OF GREAT HARRY
When I moved into the East Cleveland area back in - I think - 1973, I did what I felt was natural and decided to register with the local Labour Party.This was in the days before central membership...
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WHO NEEDS SOCIAL CARE WHEN WE CAN HAVE A MAKE BELIEVE SOCIAL REVOLUTION ?
At the moment, I feel just like how I guess a woodpecker must feel 24/7 – sore and with a headache.Summer flu – no the Labour Party. Just how a large group of people who I have spent nearly 50...
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FROM POWERHOUSE TO POOR HOUSE?
You may not have noticed, but George Osborne’s ‘big idea’ – The Northern Powerhouse – is no more. The new Government has despatched it to oblivion, and we will all - from Bodmin to Berwick on Tweed -...
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LOGO LOUT HE....
So here’s one for a socialist pub quiz. What links the logo of the Stop the War movement, beheading Queen Elizabeth II, the “white heat of technology” under Wilson in 1964 and grimy Gazette pics of...
View ArticleA Message from Plainfield, N.J.
I have one facet which is a bit unusual on the left. I quite like Americans. I guess it came from a longish visit I made back in the early 1970’s underwritten by an elderly female (now long gone)...
View ArticleHawking His Arguments Against Inequality- 50 Years On
When you get to a certain age, everything you come across gets transmuted into the distant realm of memories. This was certainly true for me when I saw a longish article in the Sunday Observer a week...
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TOYS AND TEARS - A 2016 GLOBALIST LAMENT
So this is ChristmasAnd what have you doneAnother year overAnd a new one just begunAnd so this is ChristmasI hope you have funWell, for me, when I was an ankle biter, Christmas meant toys. A...
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A NHS SILVER BULLET OR A POISON PILL FOR 2017 ?
Over the coming weeks, the time of coughs and sneezes (and worse) a lot of readers of this blog are likely to be making their way to their local GP surgery, or if they are unlucky, a visit as a patient...
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From an ‘Infant Hercules’ to the death of Teesside Steelmaking: History and...
For a PRT Filler this week, I annex an article from the most recent edition of "Social History Journal" which will be of interest to PRT browsers and readers.The closure of Teesside steelworks on the...
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4 readings on Corbyn, Brexit and Election '17
The Spirit of ’40 and ’45 and ’74 and ’79 and ’97. Which past will triumph in the UK? || Owen Hatherley, n+1, May 2017... 1940, 1945, 1974, and 1979 are full of haunting possibilities, roads not taken,...
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The end of the cosy game of politics
Just to show the PRT is not dead, but has been merely napping, here a piece from the Stumbling and Mumbling Blog which deserves wider circulation. That blog hows that there is still backing for the...
View ArticleLabour and Brexit
Some interesting sparring in the Commons on exactly how Labour reacts to the slowly dawning realisation that the front bench will eventually have to have a firm position on Brexit and the outcome of...
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Days of hope: the June election and after
It's been just over a month since that wonderful night in early June when the sky caved in for Theresa May, the Conservative Party, the tabloids, the Westminster commentariat, opinion pollsters,...
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Thatcher-on-Tees: a review of 'Wilderness Way' at MIMA
That famous photograph by Peter Reimann, Evening GazettePeter Reiman's iconic photograph of Thatcher on Teesdale is the centre-piece of a superb new exhibition at MIMA which focuses on Thatcherism,...
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Trade unionism in crisis
The following blog (spotted by the PRT's Walshy) appeared on libcom.org earlier this month and makes for interesting (and disturbing) reading. Trade unions across the political spectrum are taking...
View ArticleThe origins of the species - and racism
Walshy writes: It is not often I read a polemic in the press and cheer. I have done this today I reacted in this way, as an informed piece historically debunked Toryism, gave a graphic account of the...
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None but the grave?
A piece from last week's Northern Echo on the Bleak Future for Social care in our regionA transformation – but for the better?CRADLE TO GRAVE: The future of social care is also being looked at by the...
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A hike for Hannah
Occasionally, we feature some columns written by the enigmatic “Hollie Bush” in the East Cleveland newspaper, Coastal View. Here’s one from last year.A couple of years back I entertained readers of...
View ArticleTweeted reflections on the Labour party conference
In the week that saw social networking platform Twitter announce an increase in its character-limit from 140 to 280 characters, I thought it would be worth sharing some reflections on the 2017 Labour...
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Practical politics for "the Potash"
The news that 230 jos are going at Boulby Potash is devastating for East Cleveland. Although the news was anticipated by many as the potash reserves became increasingly depleted, its real impact will...
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