Blackpool 1937
Britain
This page will seek to present different aspects of life in the sceptr’d isle – some good, some not so good.
The Journal of the Plague Years 2020-2?
From the appearance of the covid-19 virus in Britain at the beginning of 2020 I have kept a ‘diary’ or journal, of how the pandemic played out in the UK. Like everyone else (possibly apart from a few scientists who had experience of such events – although those seem to be very thin on the ground) I never expected to still be posting under this heading 22 (and counting) months later.
Obviously, many things have evolved in the last two years since the virus appeared in China at the end of 2019. Knowledge of what was being faced has grown immensely and the very rapid development of vaccines has changed matters considerable. But at the same time the existence of vaccines has only served to highlight the inequalities in the world.
The presentation has also evolved as the idea of what the posts were all about changed. The initial idea was to document the failings of the British Government and it’s Buffoon of a leader so that there was a ‘one stop shop’ for such documented proof. The idea, from the start, was to record publicly available resources, from newspapers, websites and any other channels which were available to people in general if they only wished to look.
But even that evolved as more information became available as others sought to address the pandemic and the failings that were becoming obvious in its mismanagement – and this was, and still is – in all the countries of the world. Although the emphasis began on the UK it soon became obvious that it could not be restricted to that one small part of the globe as what happens in one country can, and more often than not does, have an impact elsewhere. There are many disadvantages of ‘globalisation’ and the ease that it provides for a virus to spread is one of them. What took the ‘Black Death’ of the 14th century years to spread across Europe took a matter of days (or perhaps weeks) to encompass virtually every country in the world.
What comes out of this long story is that, from the start until even now (January 2022), there has never been a coherent strategy in how to deal with such a thing as a pandemic. But then that will never be possible under the capitalist system that dominates the world at present.
Obviously the choice of resources has been, in some respects, subjective I have tried to introduce even those ‘positives’ which I might consider spurious.
This is still, however, an ongoing project even though the news is not as fast and furious as it was this time in 2020 and the after-effects of the pandemic will be cause for concern for many years after it might be officially declared ‘at an end’.
British History
10th February – The battle of Saltley Gate
1st May – May Day International Workers’ Day
Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament – CND
International
The shameful and wasteful (proxy) battle between two fascist leaders that took place in the early part of 1982.
Monuments
Mary Barbour and the 1915 Glasgow Rent Strike
Communism in Britain
Frederick Engels in Manchester
Communist Party of Great Britain – CPGB (an always almost Revisionist Party?)
The Marxist-Leninist and Anti-Revisionist Movement in Britain
A magazine that started out as the publication of British anti-revisionists, fighting for a revolutionary Marxist-Leninist Communist Party in Britain, but which ended up being the mouthpiece for various splinter groups.
Communist Party of Britain (Marxist-Leninist) – CPB(ML)
The closest the British working class have, so far, come to establishing a Marxist-Leninist Party in Britain.
The Worker was the newspaper published by the CPB(ML) from the beginning of 1969.
Liverpool
St George’s Hall – Minton Tile Floor
All Together Now – and the Christmas Truce 1914
Symphony No 11: Hillsborough Memorial – Michael Nyman
Exhibitions
Mayas – Revelation of an endless time
Art Turning Left – Tate Liverpool – 2013/14
Liverpool Biennials
Independents Biennial Liverpool 2014
Capitalist Britain
Labour Party
Secret cables reveal Britain interfered with elections in Chile
Poverty in Britain
Food banks – the biggest growing business in Britain after charity shops
Housing
The myth of the ‘Good Landlord’
Art
Realism made a comeback in Edinburgh – Autumn 2017
Nationalism
Scottish Independence or Unite and Fight
Burnt school – the Macintosh Building at the Glasgow School of Art
‘Burnt School’ – Mackintosh Building, Glasgow School of Art – Part 2
The Coast to Coast Walk
This is a classic walk which starts at the Irish Sea and end at the North Sea. There are slight variations in the exact route but the one followed here was the ‘classic’ as established by the walker and writer Alfred Wainwright. Obviously the speed with which one makes this journey depends upon a number of factors; ability and fitness; time available; desire to ‘take in the scenery rather than make it a race’; availability and convenience of accommodation; whether you are travelling solo or in a group; amongst others. This particular journey could have been done in a shorter time as the rest days that were included in the original plan didn’t turn out to be entirely necessary – but then at the same time there was no pressure on time so a day to contemplate the area around wasn’t really a loss.
Ennerdale YHA to Honister Hause YHA
Catterick Bridge to Osmotherly