What's the Daily (Maybe)'s theme tune?

AVPS as always has come up with a way of lightening the mood and has asked us, what's your blog's theme tune?

I've had to resist wishful thinking and put aside various T-Rex classics or this classic bit of banjo. Instrad I've plumped for the Bard of Barking's 'Waiting for the Great Leap forward'.



It seems most apt somehow but maybe I should have gone for Lonnie though... oh I don't know!

The sounds of sadness

Phil, over at AVPS, is having a miserable Valentine's Day. I've essentially been working so, as a good Stakanovite worker, I've been joyously happy all day long toiling away. However, the facts are misery is an emotion with depth in the way that happiness rarely is. Having said that when bliss comes, whew, it's powerful stuff.

In order to alleviate his temper Phil's suggesting a meme of miserablism down the ages and has, cheekily, tagged me. Seems diverting enough especially as it allows me to highlight a few of my favourite tracks. Phil has gone for an 80s, 90's and 00's song but I'm moving it one decade back and have gone for 70's, 80's and 90's.

If you want bleak heart felt angst rolled in a septic self loathing with a light drizzle of weeping, barely contained rage then allow me to introduce you to Joy Division. No song could be more appropriate on a wet Valentine's Day than this perky little number.



In the eighties flouncing about became the in thing. Nothing exemplifies this trend more this tune from 1983 by those well known doom-mongers, The Smiths.



Oh Morrisey. Deep sigh.

Moving on the 90's we have the dark prophesies of Portishead, but Phil's already bagged them so I need to look around for something equally substantial. I was always impressed by Catatonia's sweet lyrical style blending an essentially nihilist ennui that contrasts sharply with the optimism of their style.

Dead from the waist down represents this nicely.



If you fancy tagging yourself with the three decades of misery meme, feel free. Tell me about it in the comments and I'll be happy to link to youse.

Meme: Firsts

AVPS has tagged me in a meme about political first times and to make up for a slow blogging weekend I thought why not.

First political experience I am pretty sure my first defining political experience was watching Michael Foot on TV. It was during the Falklands War and he seemed to be attacking Thatcher for not being patriotic enough. I remember thinking "Aren't you meant to be in CND and that? Shouldn't you be against the war?" Bizarrely the experience made me a committed Labour Party supporter, although I do see the contradictions in that now.

First vote I believe this was 1989 in the local and European elections where I voted - shock - Labour in both. The first of many, many times. I've run out of Labour goes now so my cross goes elsewhere these days.

First demo Seeing this made me remember an action day at my school where hundreds of kids congregated on the playing fields in solidarity with the teachers' strike. I was about twelve so, not being a little Lenin or anything, I basically attended rather than organising the thing. It was good fun though as the Deputy Head got angry with us when we wouldn't disperse and started chasing kids around - forgetting that he was an old man and we were Essex Yoof. Sucker!

Last vote I've no heresy to report I'm afraid. I voted for the Green Party in both local and European elections just a couple of months ago. Keeping up the tradition neither of the people I voted for got in.

Last political activity What's political activity? I just folded about a hundred letters to local supporters and stuffed them into envelopes. Does that count? It was literally a few minutes ago so there was nothing more recent than that.

If you'd like to tag yourself - please feel free - the more the merrier!

Top Five Blogs

With eerie timing Neil asks me what my top five blogs are. The timing's weird because the Total Politics poll results will be coming out soon. Last year I was in the eighties somewhere sandwiched between Christopher Hitchins and Melanie Phillips, I'd be lying if I said I could not imagine more alluring bed fellows. Fingers crossed this year's poll sees me move up rather than down (just a bit of fun, just a bit of fun).

Anyway, I remember well from doing the first top Green Blogs poll in 2006 that these lists are brilliant ways of annoying lots of people apart from the winner so let me stress I'm choosing five blogs some political, some less so, that are representative of my tastes. Blogging's about variety and comparing a blog of philosophical essays to, say, one that posts short jokey snippets is a near impossible task.

A Very Public Sociologist; As one might expect I rather like lefty blogs. Phil's place is probably the best example of an open minded yet tough socialist blog. As an added bonus the conversation in the comments threads is often excellent. I could have mentioned Louise, Dave Semple or Peter Cranie here. I also like Liam's blog but he doesn't post often enough for my insatiable appetites, likewise Mary.

If Charlie Parker Was A Gunslinger; I love this sort of thing. Random collections of fun, weird or just plain bizarre images. Sometimes haunting, sometimes ridiculous always worth a look. It's why Mr Donkey exists after all. Photoshop disasters and Rupert Mallin are also excellent although very different.

Liberal Conspiracy; group blogging can be a wonderful thing when you get it right. Liberal Conspiracy is a solid, campaigning group blog / magazine. Pickled Politics, Third Estate, Stroppyblog, Lancaster Unity or The F Word as examples of other group blogs I enjoy.

Chicken Yoghurt; Political blogs that regularly make me laugh are a must and I find Justin's blogging to be effortlessly sharp. Or maybe he just makes it look that way. The only blog where I often find myself thinking "Christ, I wish I'd written that." In this category I could have mentioned Cruella, Sadie's Tavern or Ian Bone could go here too.

Sue Luxton's Green Ladywell; Councillor's blogs are not for everyone. Dog poo, planning applications and lap dancing licensing may well be a minority interest but for anyone interested in the their area or what are hard working representatives are up to I recommend them. I could have mentioned Bob Piper, Irfan Ahmed or Ben Duncan here.

If I missed you out I bet you noticed! Sorry. If I'd written the post on a different day I'd probably have mentioned different blogs. You really, really, really should not take it personally. For example I seem to have missed out Green bloggers almost entirely! Sorry to those like Weggis, Stuart, Richard, Dean, Natalie et al - you know I love you!

P.S. I like the fact this is catching on!

Top five Tories

In a bid to ensure this blog is so full of outrages that if I ever stand for election there will be enough evidence to hang me, Weggis asks who are my top five Tories - knowing full well I wont write a spoof post outlining which Tories I think lose the Conservatives the most votes (Tebbit, Obsborne, Soames, Gove and Daniel Kawczynski if you're asking).

Anyway here's my top five. Disclaimer: I am not a Tory. I don't vote Tory and have no plans to do so within the next century or so.

Matthew Parris: I shouldn't really. I suspect he's done more for the rehabilitation of the Tories than any other but then I'm a sucker for urbane and chaming. It's one of those things that I like. The other thing I like about him is that he's willing to challenge his own ideas and change his mind. A rare quality in the politically minded unfortunately.

Steven Bercow: our new speaker of the House seems to have annoyed all the most reactionary Conservatives so he must have quite a bit to recommend him. As it happens I'm not sure I wanted a more progressive Tory to be pulled into an administrative role where he couldn't speechify on the issues of the day, but if it had to be someone he will definately do.

Harold MacMillan: possibly because I don't know much about him but he always seemed like a rather pleasant chap. Also someone told me once that he was asked what it was like being Prime Minister and he said "I get a lot more reading done." I hope that's true.

John Major: Ok, I'm running out! I basically feel sorry for the guy. The forgotten Prime Minister, obscure because he wasn't nearly as vile as his predecessor or his successor. I've lost count of the number of times I've heard people say something along the lines of "First you had Thatcher and then Blair..." I guess that's a pretty high accolade for a PM, no one can remember you because you didn't screw things up too much.

Iain Dale: Leave to one side the fact he occasionally verges towards climate denial. Leave aside his status as founder member of the Hazel Blears fanclub. First of all I've always quite liked Iain when I've met him. Second of all he has a proper sense of humour and lastly and most importantly when he organises political discussion, in whatever forum, he likes to throw the net wide rather than sticking to the same old faces and political co-thinkers. I think all three of those things are admirable qualities.

There. Done. I know some of these choices might be controversial but you try it!

Five word meme

Following on from Benjamin Solah given me five words that remind her of me. The point of this meme is to take the five words and “waffle” about what they mean to you. Ben gave me Environment, Elections, Linking, Britain and Party.

• Environment:

We're all interconnected. Whether we like it or not the things that we do as a civilisation has an unavoidable impact on our habitat and it, more controversially, has an extraordinary impact upon us. As we've moved towards urban living we tend to see that relationship less and less - our food comes from shops rather than the sea, and the land.

I don't pretend to be an expert on most environmental issues but it seems clear that if we don't radically change our behaviour climate change will change it for us - possibly irreversibly, although let's hope not. Every party from left to right now recognises the urgency of the task but few seem willing to take real action to address the level of pollutants the human race pumps into the atmosphere.

Often the environment, which of course is not just about climate change, is an addendum onto people's manifestos without any accompanying action to demonstrate a real understanding that our global society faces a real threat. There are honourable exceptions to this, not confined to any one political perspective, and I try to be one of them - occasionally successfully.

• Elections:

Elections are the perfect combination of my twin obsessions, stats and politics. For someone who thinks representative democracy is pretty thin gruel I do like to keep my eye on what's happening at the ballot box.

It was a massive step forward for my political development when I started to get involved in electoral politics because it was the first time I really took seriously what mass politics was about. One of the beauties of elections is that you deal in hard figures - you can tell yourself everyone agrees with your politics and you speak for the people but if you get 1% of the vote you have to look yourself in the mirror and say "Maybe I ain't as popular as I first thought".

It's demoralising to do badly in an election, but unless you set your bar high enough to try to win over the majority of people in an area you're just conducting an academic exercise, not fighting for political ideas. Lip service to grass roots organising isn't enough, the best organisers prove in practice that they can win people to their ideas at the ballot box as well as elsewhere.

• Linking:

The internet at its best is a mass of connections that lead you through a mazes into new and unexpected places. As a contribution to that I like to demonstrate a bit of link love to content I want to encourage. Part of the theory is that if I link to the stuff I like maybe there will be more of it tomorrow.

There's also a manners aspect to it. If I quote someone I try to remember to link to them out of courtesy, even if I didn't approve of what they were saying. As a reader I like to be able to check the context of any quote and it beefs up your argument if you can withstand your sources being scrutinised.

An internet without links would be like toast without marge - edible, but only just. I guess it encourages good habits too. It seems to me that the best blogging doesn't see itself in competition with others but places itself as part of a community of ideas that it is happy to share.

• Britain:

I've never really seen myself as British, or even English, but from Essex. Nationalism has never been tempting to me in the least because I find it hard to get my head round the whole concept of being part of that abstract entity with a flag, a theme tune and a toff's head on the stamps. It's not a pseudo-revolutionary posture - I just don't get it.

Certainly I'd like to see the political entity of Britain scrapped; I associate it with a poverty of aspirations and endemic inequalities although I suppose if I lived in France, Paraguay or Ghana I'd have similarly negative feelings. Maybe not though.

I'm definitely a cultural product of the UK and many of the national characteristics and habits are deeply embedded in me to be honest, but I've no interest in whether or not some silver spoon wins at Wimbledon just because they have the same colour passport as me.

• Party:

On a personal level the only political party I could find habitable would be decentralised, unwhipped and ideologically on the left but loose. A party has to be a coalition if it is to be anything more than a religious cult. There is a utility in the certainty of political dogma but it lacks flexibility and self awareness unless surrounded by allies who are different enough from you to be willing to take you to task.

In fact that's why parties need to be able to welcome criticism on occasion and use it as an opportunity to improve. If someone points out to you that you have a terrible policy on (taking an uncontroversial example) policing being able to say "Yes, you're right, we'll have a look at that" is so much healthier than going to the mattresses.

If I want to have that breadth that allows me to be myself it also means that I have to respect in turn that others aren't always going to see things my way. That has occasionally been difficult but in general I'm fairly relaxed about political differences as long as we can all discuss them civilly and take a proper vote where necessary.

For me significant political parties represent a melange of social movements and tendencies - but in a clumsy and specific fashion. They are useful only in so far as they allow the individual to promote their political ideas more effectively and are dangerous when they entrench bad habits and self interest over their philosophical raison detre.

If anyone wants to be tagged let me know in the comments box and I'll be happy to oblige you with five words of my choosing!

Meme: Where was you?

James over at Two Doctors sent me this and cooperative son of a gun that I am I'm always willing to oblige. The theme of the meme is "where were you when..."

Princess Diana's death - 31 August 1997

I heard the news whilst I was watching the end of Reds on TV, which is a very good Warren Beatty film based on the stupendous 'Ten days that shook the world'. At the time I was living with a young(ish) child who was absolutely horrified the next morning that TV was cancelled - something that continued for some time.

I better not go on - I get in trouble when I talk about this.


Margaret Thatcher's resignation - 22 November 1990

Oh the joy. I was watching the news with my (Tory) Dad. Oh the bliss. Two birds. One stone.


Attack on the twin towers - 11 September 2001

I was wandering round Cambridge (before I moved here). One of my workmates rang me up when the first tower was hit. Unfortunately we had this kind of jokey, trick each other into believing things going on so I did not believe him. ESPECIALLY when he rang up to say the other tower had been hit. I kept wracking my brains to thin what the punch line would be.

Then I passed Dixons and everyone was crowded round the TV sets and I thought "Hello."

I then spent the day watching the same footage over and over again knowing that this spelt a lot of trouble for the coming years. Everyone knew this would mean war - we just weren't sure who it was going to be against - turns out it was against everywhere.

England's World Cup Semi Final v Germany in - 4 July 1990

Not sure. I avoid all England sporting events like the plague, and always have. The machismo and dogmatic jingoism that surrounds them is just unbearable to me. Sometimes I dress this up as some sort of revolutionary stance - but actually I just don't like shouting.

I do remember the level of racism really spiked over the next couple of weeks. Which was also very unpleasant.

President Kennedy's Assassination - 22 November 1963

I was on the grass knoll. Picnicking.


As you may know I don't pass these things on - but please do feel free to take up the baton from here if you so desire. Update: Phil, Stroppy, Steve and Harpy Marx have all taken up the challenge. Anyone who takes up the baton from here feel free to let me know and I'll link to you in a bit of retroactive tagging.

Egoism and blogging

First things first. Total Politics are running a best blogs series as part of Iain Dale's Guide to Blogging 2008-9 (which will be available at all four party conferences and the TUC shindig). It's all been done on the public vote and Iain is publishing the results. The Best Green Blogs category can be found here. It seems that more people voted for my blog than any other in the category, so rather embarrassingly I've come top of his list.

Obviously this is done rather differently to the best green blog awards that I've organised the last few years (which also originated because of the good Mr Dale), although there's always the "People's Choice" award which I think is a vital component, and a great way to help green bloggers think about blogging, find new places to visit and start talking to each other. I've been keen on fostering an air of a community among green bloggers and it's something I've tried to make a modest contribution to.

Which reminds me - I forgot to thank Andy T, one of the designers of War On Terror - The Board game for quickly knocking up the little top green blogger logo (above) when I was too busy to get it done myself, thanks Andy. People should feel free to pinch it - and do vote in the People's Choice poll, it's good to get the feel of public opinion, and I know it's the award that always leaves a recipient most chuffed.

So the next thing is that this Friday it's my turn to host the Carnival of Socialism and I've given it absolutely no thought up until now. Ah. That means I'd really like it if you sent me left wing posts you've seen over the last week or so that you think deserve to be highlighted. I aim to post the carnival either Friday, or Saturday if things are getting on top of me.

And lastly it brings me on to egoism. Phil over at A Very Public Sociologist, in the process of tagging me with a meme on your ten best posts, says of blogging "Let's strip away all the right-on reasons for blogging and get down to brass tacks. It's all about vanity isn't it?" I actually don't agree, at least for me, although naturally he was being lighthearted.

For me blogging is a different way of having a conversation and political blogging is where you put that method to furthering the cause, as it were. I'm not saying that no blogger is motivated by ego, just as it wouldn't be right to say no activist or politician was motivated by ego - but I don't think that's what the medium itself is about. I think there are real ideas and causes that people tie themselves to and fight for.

When I first got properly politically active in the nineties (rather than going on the occasional demo or just talking politics to my friends) it took me a long time to muster up the courage to speak in a meeting at all or talk to someone when giving out leaflets. I hated the idea of personally standing for election (at this time for student posts at Essex University) but over time I realised that if you believe something should be done there are times when you need to lead by example.

The fact is I'm unbelievably shy and retiring with people I don't know - unless it's a political context in which case you'd never know that, because the politics brain kicks in and it's action stations. The logical conclusion of being an activist is that you have to speak to people from platforms, on the street, in the workplace - everywhere - if you're to effect change. So no matter how painful it was to me I realised you've got to step up to the plate, no one is going to do it for you.

I'm glad I took that decision because I've seen and done things I never could have otherwise, learned skills and have made a positive difference, although nowhere near as often or as profoundly as I would have liked. It doesn't mean I'm not filled with secret horror when I get into a political argument, or just have to talk to strangers. Winning the best blog award is... really uncomfortable. If it was all about ego I'd be delighted - whether or not I wanted to show that. Obviously it's nice to have hard work recognised, I guess, but it's weird when that gaze gets directed this way - because I'm not here for that.

I don't know - perhaps that's just me - but this common cliche that blogging is about barmy people with their hobby horses shouting to the world doesn't stand because it would mean that every political conversation, every time you stood up and called for action, every time you put out the call it's about ego - and it ain't. It can be - but that's not the essence of the medium, or politics, to me.

Anyway. Ten posts I've written that I think were the most tolerable.

I really enjoyed slagging off Brian Haw, and being outraged at Deborah Orr and the anti-Islam fashion police. I had great fun thinking about murder for the common good, workplace bullying, treating the police with respect, and asking is the Green Party Anti-Capitalist? which led on to a fantastic fringe at the last Green Party conference.

I think I'm proudest of posts like this one a version of which became the now infamous leaflet "The Grand Arcade Sucks". I definitely enjoyed denouncing agnosticism, chastity, drugs education, fear, Joan Bakewell on women in prisons, and coming to the defence of Onan, spanking, and childhood sexuality.

Which is precisely five more than I've been asked for. What I'd like to do is ask you what post you've most enjoyed - but I'm concerned this is yet another opening for people to embarrass me. However, I'd be quite interested to hear, think it might be helpful and so give permission this once to say nice things.

Top 100 book meme

Phil from A Very Public Sociologist has kindly (?) tagged me in a book meme designed to show how few of the world's most popular books I've read.

The Big Read reckons that the average adult has only read 6 of the top 100 books they’ve printed.

1) Look at the list and bold those you have read.
2) Italicize those you intend to read.
3) Underline the books you love.
4) Strike out the books you have no intention of ever reading, or were forced to read at school and hated.
5) Reprint this list in your own blog so we can try and track down these people who’ve only read 6 and force books upon them

For some reason Phil seems to have a slightly different list - oh well, I think mine's more up to date.

1. The Lord of the Rings, JRR Tolkien
2. Pride and Prejudice, Jane Austen
3. His Dark Materials, Philip Pullman
4. The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, Douglas Adams
5. Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire, JK Rowling
6. To Kill a Mockingbird, Harper Lee
7. Winnie the Pooh, AA Milne
8. Nineteen Eighty-Four, George Orwell
9. The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe, CS Lewis
10. Jane Eyre, Charlotte Brontë
11. Catch-22, Joseph Heller
12. Wuthering Heights, Emily Brontë
13. Birdsong, Sebastian Faulks
14. Rebecca, Daphne du Maurier
15. The Catcher in the Rye, JD Salinger
16. The Wind in the Willows, Kenneth Grahame
17. Great Expectations, Charles Dickens
18. Little Women, Louisa May Alcott
19. Captain Corelli's Mandolin, Louis de Bernieres
20. War and Peace, Leo Tolstoy
21. Gone with the Wind, Margaret Mitchell
22. Harry Potter And The Philosopher's Stone, JK Rowling
23. Harry Potter And The Chamber Of Secrets, JK Rowling
24. Harry Potter And The Prisoner Of Azkaban, JK Rowling
25. The Hobbit, JRR Tolkien
26. Tess Of The D'Urbervilles, Thomas Hardy
27. Middlemarch, George Eliot
28. A Prayer For Owen Meany, John Irving
29. The Grapes Of Wrath, John Steinbeck
30. Alice's Adventures In Wonderland, Lewis Carroll
31. The Story Of Tracy Beaker, Jacqueline Wilson
32. One Hundred Years Of Solitude, Gabriel García Márquez
33. The Pillars Of The Earth, Ken Follett
34. David Copperfield, Charles Dickens
35. Charlie And The Chocolate Factory, Roald Dahl
36. Treasure Island, Robert Louis Stevenson
37. A Town Like Alice, Nevil Shute
38. Persuasion, Jane Austen
39. Dune, Frank Herbert
40. Emma, Jane Austen
41. Anne Of Green Gables, LM Montgomery
42. Watership Down, Richard Adams
43. The Great Gatsby, F Scott Fitzgerald
44. The Count Of Monte Cristo, Alexandre Dumas
45. Brideshead Revisited, Evelyn Waugh
46. Animal Farm, George Orwell
47. A Christmas Carol, Charles Dickens
48. Far From The Madding Crowd, Thomas Hardy
49. Goodnight Mister Tom, Michelle Magorian
50. The Shell Seekers, Rosamunde Pilcher
51. The Secret Garden, Frances Hodgson Burnett
52. Of Mice And Men, John Steinbeck
53. The Stand, Stephen King
54. Anna Karenina, Leo Tolstoy
55. A Suitable Boy, Vikram Seth
56. The BFG, Roald Dahl
57. Swallows And Amazons, Arthur Ransome
58. Black Beauty, Anna Sewell
59. Artemis Fowl, Eoin Colfer
60. Crime And Punishment, Fyodor Dostoyevsky
61. Noughts And Crosses, Malorie Blackman
62. Memoirs Of A Geisha, Arthur Golden
63. A Tale Of Two Cities, Charles Dickens
64. The Thorn Birds, Colleen McCollough
65. Mort, Terry Pratchett
66. The Magic Faraway Tree, Enid Blyton
67. The Magus, John Fowles
68. Good Omens, Terry Pratchett and Neil Gaiman
69. Guards! Guards!, Terry Pratchett
70. Lord Of The Flies, William Golding
71. Perfume, Patrick Süskind
72. The Ragged Trousered Philanthropists, Robert Tressell
73. Night Watch, Terry Pratchett
74. Matilda, Roald Dahl
75. Bridget Jones's Diary, Helen Fielding
76. The Secret History, Donna Tartt
77. The Woman In White, Wilkie Collins
78. Ulysses, James Joyce
79. Bleak House, Charles Dickens
80. Double Act, Jacqueline Wilson
81. The Twits, Roald Dahl
82. I Capture The Castle, Dodie Smith
83. Holes, Louis Sachar
84. Gormenghast, Mervyn Peake
85. The God Of Small Things, Arundhati Roy
86. Vicky Angel, Jacqueline Wilson
87. Brave New World, Aldous Huxley
88. Cold Comfort Farm, Stella Gibbons
89. Magician, Raymond E Feist
90. On The Road, Jack Kerouac
91. The Godfather, Mario Puzo
92. The Clan Of The Cave Bear, Jean M Auel
93. The Colour Of Magic, Terry Pratchett
94. The Alchemist, Paulo Coelho
95. Katherine, Anya Seton
96. Kane And Abel, Jeffrey Archer
97. Love In The Time Of Cholera, Gabriel García Márquez
98. Girls In Love, Jacqueline Wilson
99. The Princess Diaries, Meg Cabot
100. Midnight's Children, Salman Rushdie

A bit embarrassing admitting to having read the Terry Pratchett books, and I'm sure it's obvious from the list my reading is rather left leaning (Roy, Steinbeck, Orwell, Tressell but no Archer, Waugh or Rowling).

In accordance with my usual meme policy I'm not going to tag anyone but feel free to tag yourself should you so desire.

Meme: your nearest book

AVPS has tagged me in a book meme and I thought I'd give it a go. The meme is to pick sentences six to eight on page 123 of the nearest book, write them down, and then tag five others with the meme. I will not, of course, be tagging others in accordance with my usual practice - although you are welcome to tag yourself in the comments.

Whilst AVPS's selection contains the delightful "It then becomes possible to proclaim a completely rhetorical and mystifying subjectivism-voluntarism." mine appears to be less high brow, and rather clunky (which may or may not be the fault of the translation);

"As he kissed, a sudden sharp pang struck within him and he breathed in sharply, withdrawing. A sudden, darkly powerful sense of guilt had struck home; he responded pruidishly, tearing himself from her arms."

Taken from The Sorrow of War by Bao Ninh.

Bao Ninh served with the Glorious 27th Youth Brigade during the American War in Vietnam. Of the five hundred who set out to fight Bao Ninh was one of only ten survivors.

Interview meme

I'm not a great fan of the meme viruses that work their way at random round the net in general, but occasionally I'll let one through. In this case a tough online interview with ace anarcho-blogger Disillusioned Kid. It's a privilege.

Here goes...

1. You're stranded on a desert island with a computer. Unfortunately for complicated technical reasons you wouldn't understand you can only have access to one website. Ever. Which one do you chose?

I'll start cheekily I think. Loband. It's a website designed for those places (mainly in the developing world where, no doubt, my island is) with really poor connections that strips away everything but the text from any site you care to mention.

I could use this site to access the web more widely and, as an added side benefit, if there were any totalitarian regimes monitoring my web usage (to check I'm adhering to the one site rule perhaps) it also acts as a proxy so I can browse away without fear of the secret police knowing which oppositional sites I'm visiting.

2. After an action you're involved in goes inexplicably wrong you find yourself trapped in the House of Commons. As your food runs out it becomes clear that your going to have to kill and eat one of the MPs. Who gets done first?

Brown might be an obvious choice, possibly opening the way to jokes abound Brown / HP Sauce. however, I've a feeling he's all fat and gristle and I'm in favour of a healthier diet. So I'm plumping for Shona McIsaac, Labour MP for Cleethorps, and vegetarian, shown here selecting our afters with John Reid. Not only will the meat be better for us, she wouldn't have been able to tuck in if we'd chosen anyone else anyway.

3. If you could abolish one sport forever, which one would it be?

Tricky. I'm not a great fan of rugby, after I received permanent tinnitus from playing it at school. I'm even less of a fan of great waddling scrums of drunken rugby lads - and would force them all to take up hopscotch, La Crosse and limbo dancing instead. Just for fun.

4. What is the single biggest barrier to left-wing/radical movements achieving their goals.

The economy. More than the state, petty sectarianism and plain bloody indolence put together the bread and butter facts of the economy are both the impetus to why we need a fundamental change in society and the greatest barrier to human solidarity, militancy and understanding the world.

5. What's your opinion of Cliff Richard?

My Mum went to school with Cliff (Harry as was) and thinks none too highly of him. Who am I to go against a long standing family feud? Up against the wall with him!

Rules:

1. Leave me a comment saying, “Interview me.”
2. I will respond by emailing you five questions (or leaving them in a comment on your blog). I get to pick the questions.
3. You will update your blog with the answers to the questions.
4. You will include this explanation and an offer to interview someone else in the same post.
5. When others comment asking to be interviewed, you will ask them five questions.

2007 personal highlights

A little while ago Disillusioned Kid tagged me with one of those meme Johnnies. "The seven best things you did in 2006" to be precise.

Unfortunately whilst 2006 wasn't exactly the worst year on record I got stuck on number four and couldn't think of anything worthwhile to put in the 5, 6 and 7 places (everyone else who's been tagged seems to have cheated to fill in the space, but that's not my style). So I've decided to subvert the thing and go for the seven best things that *will* happen to me in 2007.

1. Moving into the hippy commune (this coming Monday), turns out to be the best place I've ever lived.

2. In an uncharacteristic spurt of energy and self discipline I do rather well at actually getting paid to write things down.

3. My new job at the Friends Meeting House (interview this Monday) gives me lots of opportunities to meet more active people in Cambridge and helps me focus on number 2.

4. This blog goes from strength to strength (particularly after the coming redesign) and the year is topped off with an unexpected prize of Iain Dale's still beating heart (or the cash equivalent).

5. I see more of my sister and get to know her a bit better.

6. Whilst shopping in London I accidently bump into John Noakes and we become unlikely friends.

7. My Spanish comes on a treat and I finally learn how to tell a spontaneous joke to native Spanish speakers that actually makes them laugh.

I never pass these things on, but if it looks like your cup of tea, feel free to tag yourself.

Hurray for feminism...

...or something similar. I hate memes, or chain letters or whatever they are called and am delighted, for that reason, not to have been included in one of the latest 'tags' to be going round that I noticed at Stroppy land namely: 5 things feminism has done for me.

However, I thought it would be quite a good idea if at least one chap joined in on this one and so I've taken it on myself to go for my top five things feminism has done for me.

Incidentally, without getting into too much of a frenzy of pedantry I wouldn't describe myself as a "feminist" partly because whenever I hear a bloke say they are a feminist I have an irresistible visceral urge to scream "fuck off you tosser!" into their ear and partly because I'm never quite sure how far labels get us anyway.

When people say anything like "As a Marxist I think..." I always think I bet there are loads of Marxists who think the exact opposite, what I wish they'd say instead is "This is what I think, and here's why..." Much the same goes for feminism, there are plenty of self identifying feminists out there, but until you actually hear what they have to say on issues like abortion, men, pornography, marriage and trade unionism you are still in the dark as to what they actually think.

So here goes, five things the feminist movement has done for me

1. The Nuclear family

My personal experience of the nuclear family has not been an entirely, ahem, happy one and the break from the rigid post-Victorian moralism that kept people who didn't love each other within spitting distance of each other is jolly good. Or worse, like my Dad's parents, a social standard that brought them together in the first place despite having no real feelings for one another because getting married and having kids was the thing that was done - I'm not so sad to see the back of that particular zone of emotional disfugurement.

Obviously I'm not for polyamory or anything [shudders theatrically] but the fruits of serial monogamy have been delightful I must say, both in terms of a far healthier way of operating than being locked into a valueless relationship that has run its course and having partners that are both sexually experienced and emotional mature. I assure you dear reader, this does have its benefits.

2. Family planning

The right to an abortion, easily available contraception and sex education have not just been welcome steps forward but are absolutely revolutionary in terms of how we live our lives. If it wasn't for this and point one (above) my own life would be quite, quite different today. Whilst I'm certainly not opposed to wives and babies I'm very much in favour of getting to choose when and if they become part of my life.

I'm pretty certain that the 17 year old me would have been a pretty poor husband and father and I'm very glad that, due to the advances that feminism fought for, it never happened. Family planning isn't just something that has enhanced people's sex lives (or simply allowed them to have one) it's a social revolution allowing us to make choices about children, sexual health and orientation that simply were not open to us before.

3. Breaking down barriers to advancement

It may sound strange that allowing women to be promoted into positions that were only available to men previously should be something of benefit to both sexes, or perhaps it doesn't, I don't know, but it certainly seems that way to me. When my Mum was at school not only was she not allowed to take her best subject (Maths) because it was not a girl's subject she was all but forced to become a nurse.

I don't think it's in my interest for my Mum to have lived a life constrained by gender conventions that simply do not suit her temperament. It can hardly be in my interest either that the best person for the job of, say, the heart surgeon who may have to operate on me, has not gone to the best person because gender roles forbid it.

The best person for the job is something that benefits the whole of society, not just the person who gets the position they applied for and, whilst we still have a long way to go to a totally open job market, the difference between my generation and my Mum's is difficult to over state.

4. Learning to cook

How many skills have I got that my father just never will? How many men have no confidence to do the simplest things around the home because they come from a generation which told them it was "women's work" and so they never learned.

I suppose it also has benefits the other way round. I don't have a clue around cars, traditionally only men might have been able to help me spark my alternator, or whatever you do with it, thus limiting the number of people who could help me out when stuck. I hate cleaning the oven though and very rarely do it.

5. Making workplaces habitable

When I left school I went to work in Hayters Lawnmower factory in Spellbrook (Essex) and I thought it was hell on Earth. The job was boring and monotonous, but I could tolerate that, what I found very difficult to cope with was the constant use of the c word, the vile and misogynist tripe that my workmates constantly came out with and the dull as ditch water view on what was and was not homosexual behaviour.

I'm not saying these attitudes have gone away but the progress made at work in terms of professional behaviour has made my life far, far better - and I'd like to thank feminism from the bottom of my heart for that.

It sounds obvious to say but the fact is I've met many women I like, and I enjoy spending time with them as friends - if women are only there to fuck or to cook why would I have ever wanted to talk to them in the first place? I think I would have missed out on some very interesting, funny and challenging conversations over the years that rarely, if ever, strayed onto sewing, wedding dresses or recipes for bread and butter pudding.

It's in the tag

The Stropster has 'tagged' me - which is what young people do to each other - and judging by some tags I've seen on the blogosphere the notion has the potential to be extraordinarily annoying. However, this tag is about books AND lists which means I'm keen to get cracking, and am happy to recieve my first ever 'tag' (imagine me typing the word 'tag' in the style of Stephen Fry to get exactly how hip and happening I am)


1. One book that changed your life. Building the party - Tony Cliff *

The first volume of Cliff's biography of Lenin was extraordinarily influential over me, and still is. It covers the period of Lenin's life during the early years of Russian Marxism, leading through the split that led to the formation of the Bolsheviks and into the 1905 revolution.

How you build an organisation in difficult periods and the kind of robust flexibility that's required continues to shape my political activity to this day - although I've subverted it in a way that would have Cliff spinning in his grave and screaming "r.r.r.r.rubbish!!"

One of its key insights, which incidently never seems to have been fully taken on board by the SWP, is the way different parts of the party are influenced by their position inside its structures - and that at different times different parts of the organisation must take prominence. Alas, the SWP cast this aside and 'chooses' to fetishise centralised command structures - inflexibly embracing the very worst parts of the Bolshevik tradition.

It was a toss up between this and Candide, which I read when I was about twelve and adopted it as my Bible despite having completely misunderstood the whole thing.

2. One book that you've read more than once In Dubious Battle - John Steinbeck

Beautiful, if occasionally brutal book, detailing the exploits of a revolutionary called Jim. Cool. I particularly like the bit where the scabs were "kicked apart like cheese", but who kicks cheese?

3. One book that you'd want on a desert island Plans and Instructions for building 47 Boats John Gardner

I've not read it yet - but it could come in handy.

4. One book that made you laugh A Star Called Henry - Roddy Doyle

I almost put this in books that made me cry, but I guess it made me laugh more. Really moving and deceptively clever book. It has shaped my understanding of the Irish Civil War and, to be honest, is probably better than the rather good Wind that shakes the barley which is a film not a book of course.

5. One book that made you cry? Dancers from the End of Time Michael Moorcock

I'm always blubbing, the slightest thing sets me off. The first book I remember making me cry was this bit of froth by Michael Moorcock all about time travellers from the darkly licentious and decadent end of the universe who, as a wheeze, turn up in nineteenth century London.

Our hero, Jherek Carnelian, is sentanced to death for murder and is both amused and uncomprehending by turns. The scene where the parson visits the condemned man's cell had me in floods. In order to please the parson, and unaware of what a death sentance really means, he converts to Christianity and gleefully repents his sins - the joy and horror of parson and jailers combined with his childlike, if wild, desire to please would melt granite.

Of Mice and Men by John Steinbeck is the close runner up - but I've had a Steinbeck already - so hard kicked apart cheese.

6. One book you wish you had written

A book I've always had plans to write is "Love under capitalism" but of currently existing books that I wish had been written by me rather than the actual author would be Statistics for Dummies by D. Rumsey because my love of numbers knows no bounds.

7. One book you wish had never been written The book of Mormon.

Any good list must offend at least one religious community. I bagsy Mormons.

8. One book you're currently reading Flow My Tears, the Policeman Said Philip K. Dick

Actually I just finished reading it this morning, but as I haven't started reading another book in the last couple of hours it will have to do. Covers Dick's usual subjects of identity and drug taking and has a particularly dumb hero who thinks he is God's gift.

9. One book you have been meaning to read The Whole Woman by Germaine Greer

I've been meaning to finish Germain Greer's 'The Whole Woman' - which is really excellent - I got it out the library and it is now terribly overdue - doh!

10. Five people to tag

No, it feels too much like a chain letter. However, if you have a blog - read this and would like to take part let me know and I'll add you as a volunteer taggee.


Open invitation

A little while ago I wrote this five books every socialist should read (full list of participants). Coming soon, the sequel, five films every socialist should see, why not get thinking and email me your thoughts if you want to take part.