Matthew Carr's Blog, page 30
October 6, 2017
Despatches from Catalonia
Last week I posted a guest post from Barcelona in the lead up to the Catalan Referendum. Today I’m posting the following dispatch from the frontlines of the referendum struggle from a very different perspective, summing up the tumultuous events … Continue reading →
October 3, 2017
The Gospel According to Jacob Rees-Mogg
And so it came to pass that in the year 2017 there was great confusion in the land of Albion, and much weeping and gnashing of teeth amongst the tribe of Tory following the failure of May’s snap election and … Continue reading →
October 2, 2017
Batons versus Ballots: On the Catalan Referendum
The ‘nationalism of small nations’ inevitably draws its emotional power from a sense of victimhood and a history of oppression — whether real or imagined. Watching the confiscations of ballot papers in Catalonia over the last week, I was reminded … Continue reading →
October 1, 2017
Guest Post. The Catalan Referendum: Anubis versus Demos
Today is a day without precedent in Spanish and Catalan history. To mark the occasion, I’m posting this very personal take on the unfolding crisis by Tamara Djermanovic, writer, professor of Humanities at the Pompeu Fabra University in Barcelona, and … Continue reading →
September 26, 2017
Spain Versus Catalonia
Political struggles demand that you take sides, but there are some political confrontations that you just wish weren’t happening. Watching the struggle for Catalan independence unfold over the last seven years, I have certainly not felt like a neutral … Continue reading →
September 20, 2017
Trump Goes to Westphalia
There is nothing entirely new under the sun when it comes to US presidents and US military power, at least since the end of World War II. All American presidents, whatever their political inclinations, preside over a quasi-imperial system of … Continue reading →
September 18, 2017
Twilight in Brexitland
Yesterday evening I shared a horrific post on Facebook about a tetraplegic woman whose disability benefits have just been cancelled, and has just been summoned to a job interview by her local job centre. As shocking as it was, this … Continue reading →
September 6, 2017
The Wars of Ralph Peters
Slowly, but inexorably, the world is drifting towards the prospect of an all-out war between the United States and North Korea. At the very least such a conflict is likely to result in the deaths of hundreds of thousands of … Continue reading →
The World According to Ralph Peters
Slowly, but inexorably, the world is drifting towards the prospect of an all-out war between the United States and North Korea. At the very least such a conflict is likely to result in the deaths of hundreds of thousands of … Continue reading →
September 4, 2017
One Day Without Us 2018
It’s just under a year since I was part of a Facebook discussion about the alarmingly xenophobic drift of post-referendum UK society. We were people from many different nationalities, backgrounds and political persuasions. Some of us were migrants, others the … Continue reading →
