[imposs1904]

Is that the same John O’Neill who was in the Lancaster Branch of the SPGB in the 1970s?

[imposs1904]

An excellent period for the Standard.

Well worth Forum members checking it out.

[imposs1904]

If anyone wants to see what films have been reviewed in the Standard down the years, they should click on the following link:

https://socialiststandardmyspace.blogspot.com/p/film-reviews.html

[imposs1904]

A short post to mention that the pages for the regular, longstanding Socialist Standard columns have been updated on the blog. The pages provide easy access to all the individual columns in chronological order:

Cooking the Books column:
https://socialiststandardmyspace.blogspot.com/p/cooking-books.html

Material World column:
https://socialiststandardmyspace.blogspot.com/p/material-world-column.html

Pathfinders column:
https://socialiststandardmyspace.blogspot.com/p/pathfinders-column.html

[imposs1904]

Nuts that this was only an album track on The Gift.

[imposs1904]

Moo,

Thanks for the recommendation. I’ll make a note of it.

In other news, a bit later than usual, the list of the 21 most popular articles on the blog in 2025:

https://socialiststandardmyspace.blogspot.com/2026/01/january-february-i-dont-understand.html

Please click away.

[imposs1904]

‘It’s Clichéd to Be Cynical at Christmas* . . .’

I posted this last year but why not post it again one year on? Think of it as a re-gifting.

A selection of Christmas-related articles that have appeared in the Socialist Standard (and elsewhere) down the years. 

https://socialiststandardmyspace.blogspot.com/2024/12/its-cliched-to-be-cynical-at-christmas.html

 

[imposs1904]

Sad to read about the death of the radical filmmaker Peter Watkins at the age of 90.

Best known for the banned BBC documentary The War Game, some of his work has reviewed in the pages of the Socialist Standard.

Click on the links for the reviews:

Peter Watkins: A Revolutionary Film-Maker (2015)
https://socialiststandardmyspace.blogspot.com/2015/10/peter-watkins-revolutionary-film-maker.html

Peter Watkins: A Revolutionary Film-Maker (2015) – part 2
https://socialiststandardmyspace.blogspot.com/2015/11/peter-watkins-revolutionary-film-maker.html

Review of The War Game – 1966
https://socialiststandardmyspace.blogspot.com/2016/04/the-war-game-1966.html

Another review of The War Game – 1980
https://socialiststandardmyspace.blogspot.com/2016/04/the-war-game-1980.html

[imposs1904]

This novel was published a couple of years ago:

Trotsky in New York, 1917

Can anyone top that? I’ll doff my cap if someone provides proof of a concept album centred around Nadezhda Krupskaya’s three weeks in Kettering in 1911.

[imposs1904]

A bit of fun with regards to Lenin in London.

From the 1974 British TV series, Fall of Eagles, Trevor Griffiths episode, Absolute Beginners, about the Russian revolutionaries in London at the turn of the 20th century. Patrick Stewart as Lenin, Michael Kitchen as Trotsky and Paul Eddington as Plekhanov.

For those of you who don’t know him, Trevor Griffiths is best known for co-writing the Hollywood film, Reds, with Warren Beatty.

[imposs1904]

There are a few. Not sure how official they are:

https://www.facebook.com/socialistpartyofgreatbritain

https://www.facebook.com/groups/worldsocialism

https://www.facebook.com/groups/89558217699/user/100067081981551

https://www.facebook.com/groups/worldsocialism.org

https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100063561098984

• This reply was modified 1 year ago by imposs1904.

[imposs1904]

Matthew Syed using the same line as Cleverly about Farage word for word at the recent Tory Party conference. Obviously, the Tories are running scared of Reform UK, and believe this is the best line of attack:

[imposs1904]

This turned up in my YouTube recommendations.

The New Statesman’s take on the current difficulties in Your Party, combining smugness and condescension like only the New Statesman can do:

[imposs1904]

Added some new pages to the blog.

The pages are dedicated to particular columns from the Socialist Standard from yesteryear.

New Page: Letter From Europe column (1979-1986)
https://socialiststandardmyspace.blogspot.com/2025/09/new-page-letter-from-europe-column-1979.html

New Page: Aspect column (1967-1971)
https://socialiststandardmyspace.blogspot.com/2025/09/aspect-column-1967-1971.html

New Page: Letter From America column (1977-1978)
https://socialiststandardmyspace.blogspot.com/2025/09/letter-from-america-column-1977-1978.html

[imposs1904]

I subscribe to the Bulwark newsletter. (A right of centre anti-Trump news group), and one of their latest newsletters had this timeline of Trump’s latest pronouncements. It makes for fascinating reading:

Fast Times at the End Times
Things are unraveling quickly. And Trump’s approval is fine.
JONATHAN V. LAST
AUG 27

1. Two weeks
Warning: We’re going extra dark today.

It’s been just two weeks since the president of the United States ordered a military occupation of the nation’s capital. I understand that it feels longer. But I want to highlight for you two things: (1) The pace at which we are moving, and (2) how Trump employs a mix of the ridiculous and the dangerous.

August 11: Trump announces he is deploying National Guard troops to take over Washington, D.C.

August 13: Trump declares that he has personally chosen the recipients of the Kennedy Center Honors for 2025.

August 15: Trump greets Vladimir Putin in Alaska with a red carpet rolled out by kneeling American soldiers and literal applause.

August 22: Trump announces that the U.S. government has taken a 10 percent ownership stake in Intel.

August 24: Trump demands that the Baseball Hall of Fame admit Roger Clemens.

August 25: Trump announces that he has removed Lisa Cook from the Federal Reserve Board of Governors.

August 26: Trump instructs Cracker Barrel to abandon its new company logo.

[Author]

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