My partner Megan Davies died aged 67 on 31st October 2025. My obituary is in the print edition of The Guardian on 31st January 2026. In the words of Joe Hill: don’t mourn, organise
Bringing it all back home. Bruce Springsteen sings Streets of Minneapolis in Minneapolis
Apologies for the X link. Bruce Springsteen premiered his new song Streets of Minneapolis in Minneapolis itself on Friday. He was guesting at a benefit organised by Rage Against The Machine for those killed by ICE in the City. Chants of ICE Out rang out during the song. Turning theory into practice….
Standing up to racism in the Gorton & Denton by-election
It won’t of course stop hardcore Reform voters but the lesson of the last 50 years of anti-racist campaigning is that it can make the Reform curious think twice
Mandelson: latest Epstein files revelations. Tony Benn in 1987 was a better judge of character than Blair & Starmer
Lord Mandelson sacked as UK Ambassador in Washington in 2024 because of his friendship with Jeffrey Epstein has gave an interview to Laura Kuenssberg (11th Jan 2026). It has something of the flavour of Emily Maitlis’s interview with Andrew Mountbatten.
Mandelson admitted the error of his links with Epstein, particularly after he was convicted of offences, but failed to apologise for being involved in the late financiers trafficking of young girls, noting that he knew nothing about this. He later clarified this somewhat…
While it might be accepted that Mandelson was attracted to Epstein because of his wealth and contacts, the argument that he didn’t know what was going on seems implausible particularly given the latest revelations in newly released Epstein files papers
Tony Benn first encountered Mandelson at meetings of the Labour NEC and Shadow Cabinet after the 1987 Election. Benn wrote in his Diary:
Monday 16th February 1987. Today we had a meeting of the NEC and the Shadow Cabinet, the first since Neil Kinnock became leader, Kinnock introduced the meeting and spoke for about twenty minutes.. We went on to Peter Mandelson who said a few words. I find Mandelson a threatening figure for the future of the Party…
Benn proved a shrewder judge of political character than Tony Blair and Keir Starmer
The Times on Reform candidate Matthew Goodwin’s ‘dark turn’ as he’s endorsed by Yaxley Lennon
GB News presenter and very much ex-academic Matthew Goodwin who is currently the Reform candidate for the Gorton and Denton by-election has been endorsed by Stephen Yaxley Lennon. Yaxley Lennon is a supporter of Advance an even farther right political outfit than Reform.
A Times Editorial on 29th January referred to the ‘dark turn’ that Goodwin’s views have taken in recent times
It underlines the importance not only of defeating Reform in the Gorton and Denton by-election but also of countering the far right ideas that they are trying to popularise.
Liz Truss says The Blob is trying to take over Reform led by entrist Robert Jenrick
Not content with her little watched You Tube show Liz Truss has appeared on the Daily Telegraph podcast where she had a chat with Tim Stanley and Rachel Johnson.
It’s 45 minutes of mostly very familiar conspiracy theories but if you are interested its not pay walled and can be googled
Key points were:
Truss is ambivelant about marmite
Because its likely that Reform will win the next Election The Establishment (The Blob) is looking to promote its perspectives in Nigel Farage’s political business spearheaded by chief entrist Robert Jenrick
Truss says she is a big Trump fan, he is facing an armed insurrection and ICE have got the right approach (The Telegraph did not agree on these last points because there is right-wing and then there is Truss)
Truss has confirmed she is still a Tory Party member
Bruce Springsteen’s The Streets of Minneapolis looks at where the X,Y,Z of the Socialist ABC can be found- written on the street barricades..
The Socialist ABC
(Alex Glasgow 1935-2001)
When that I was and a little, tiny boy,
Me daddy said to me,
‘The time has come, me bonny, bonny bairn,
To learn your ABC.’
Now Daddy was a lodge chairman
In the coalfields of the time
And his ABC was different
From the Enid Blyton kind.
He sang, ‘A is for Alienation
That made me the man that I am, and
B’s for the Boss who’s a Bastard,
A Bourgeois who don’t give a damn.
C is for Capitalism,
The bosses’ reactionary creed, and
D’s for Dictatorship, laddie,
But the best proletarian breed.
E is for Exploitation
That workers have suffered so long, and
F is for old Ludwig Feuerbach,
The first one to say it was wrong.
G is all Gerrymanderers,
Like Lord Muck and Sir Whatsisname, and
H is the Hell that they’ll go to
When the workers have kindled the flame.
I’s for Imperialism,
And America’s kind is the worst, and
J is for sweet Jingoism,
That the Tories all think of the first.
K is for good old Kier Hardy,
Who fought out the working class fight, and
L is for Vladimir Lenin,
Who showed him the left was all right.
M is of course for Karl Marx,
The daddy and the mommy of them all, and
N is for Nationalisation –
Without it we’d tumble and fall.
O is for Overproduction,
That capitalist economy brings, and
P is for all Private Property,
The greatest of all of the sins.
Q’s for the Quid pro quo,
That we’ll deal out so well and so soon, when
R for Revolution is shouted and
The Red Flag becomes the top tune.
S is for Sad Stalinism
That gave us all such a bad name, and
T is for Trotsky, the hero,
Who had to take all of the blame.
U’s for the Union of Workers –
The Union will stand to the end, and
V is for Vodka, yes, Vodka,
The vun drink that vont bring the bends.
W’s for all Willing Workers,
And that’s where the memory fades,
For X, Y, and Z,’ my dear daddy said,
‘Will be written on the street barricades.’
Now that I’m not a little tiny boy,
Me daddy says to me,
‘Please try to forget those thing that I said,
Especially the ABC.’
For daddy is no longer a union man,
And he’s had to change his plea.
His alphabet is different now,
Since they made him a Labour MP.
Voting to the left, January 2026….
The above graphic is based on a YouGov poll, which unlike some organisations avoids ‘innovative’ polling
It suggests that there it little point in Labour chasing the Reform vote (not that Morgan McSweeney will be paying attention) and that most of the 2024 Labour voters who are looking elsewhere have switched to the Greens or the LibDems. Its a stretch to call the latter ‘left’ but (polls can only tell us so much) at least some of these may be those who voted Labour to get the Tories out and have now switched to the LibDems with the intention of doing the same to Labour. We shall see.
Of course Your Party should it ever manage to resolve its political perspectives (hopefully it will) doesnt feature.
It might also, given how badly Labour is polling, be seen as not terrible news for Starmer. Labour still has 50% of its 2024 vote.
Psephology can only take us so far. As the late Alex Glasgow reminded in the Socialist ABC, X, Y & Z are written on the street barricades. See Minneapolis.
Norwich, late January 1443. The King of Christmas riot
In pre-industrial times the season of Christmas extended well beyond 25th December and the 6th January into Candlemas, 40 days after Christmas Day.
It was time with limited daylight and limited work that could be done on the land. Custom saw Lords of Misrule appointed- Toby Belch in Shakespeare’s Twelfth Night is the most well-known fictional character.
It was a time for Carnival and sometimes revolt.
One such revolt took place in Norwich in early 1443. The precise date is not clear but it may well have been in late January. Certainly a Government inquiry was ordered into the events which reported in late February.
A local merchant John Gladman, was appointed King of Christmas- again the period not as closely defined as now- and rode around Norwich with an attendant crowd. The purpose was to highlight a dispute between the local population and authorities and the Church.
The most recent study notes:
The two sides in a long-running dispute over rights and resources between on the one hand the City of Norwich, as represented by the mayor, most of the council, and many common citizens, and on the other the powerful Cathedral Priory, seconded by neighbouring monastic institutions, regional magnates and a faction within the city oligarchy. It culminated on 25 January 1443 when a crowd of commoners initiated a siege of the Priory, trying in vain to break down its gates. When after a few days order was restored, the crown instigated the formal inquisition…..
See Tom Pettitt, Carnevale in Norwich 1643:
(PDF) Carnevale in Norwich, 1443: Gladman’s Parade and its Continental Connections
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