Year: 2016
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Black Mirror – San Junipero
Black Mirror: Series 3 is remarkably well-made. Ever since its 2011 premiere, showrunner Charlie Brooker has been gleefully dramatising and satirising mankind’s encroaching technological empowerment as debilitating fetishes, or grand traps. He seems to delight in misery and misanthropy. After the concentrated pastel nightmare fuel of Nosedive, the pant-filling terror of Playtest and the cruel nihlistic…
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EU and Independence Paper
The Scottish Socialist Party recognised that a Brexit vote under the present circumstances would unlock a “carnival of reaction” – a tidal wave of racism and little Islander mentality which would continue to blame and demean migrants and those seeking asylum for Britain’s catastrophic failures on working class people. We also noted the revolutionary left…
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I rely on a lot of people to make me whole
Last night, I was working with a comrade on implementing a discussion forum. Looking at its functionality, fixing its breakages and ensuring it had access to all it needed to function correctly – and test with more people in due course. He was looking at administrative functionality, I was trying to ensure that it wasn’t…
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Two years on – and the economics of campaigning
Saturday, I went to Stirling. Later in the evening, the Stirling Branch comrades had a curry night, to raise cash for the branch. We ended up with a shade under a hundred quid – which was by no means bad. The same night, there was a “supporters of the union” fundraiser – which raised around…
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Recent SSP video pieces
Saturday and Sunday – was in Stirling. Stayed over on the branch organiser’s sofa. Had a pile of work to do, so headed there early, and brought my laptop to start work on a branch movie poster campaign, and to knit together a reasonably complex short film about the RMT’s struggle to keep the guards…
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Biking to work
I have to travel nearly two and a half hours every day to work. Two buses there and back, 30+ minute journeys each, and waiting time in connection. I try to make the best of it, by carrying a book or two, but I do miss my morning and afternoon bicycle rides to work. They were short…
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Oppression, equality and respect
There’s an acute shortage of socialists who aren’t fighting with one another. During the past four years of activism two things have become clear. I’ve had no end of people being shut out and ostracised from politics because they’re ill-educated or say the wrong things without meaning to offend. There’s no shortage of folk that…
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Getting the SSP’s conference film done
Righto. Since getting a nice DSLR last year, I’ve been quite busy. Learning an absolute ton of useful information from YouTube on getting passable results. Filmmaker IQ The Basic Filmmaker DSLRGuide Philip Bloom David Kong’s video series RocketJump Film School
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The European Question
It’s not been an easy choice. The Leave and Remain campaigns have been absolutely bereft of anything positive to say about the future of the nation either way. I’m for Remain. But just barely – I do not endorse the EU as it is manifested. It’s nowhere near democratic enough. more weight could be placed…
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The Offensive Behaviour at Football and Threatening Communications (Scotland) Act 2012
Serious concerns have been raised by political activists and civic society regarding the Offensive Behaviour at Football and Threatening Communications (Scotland) Act 2012 (henceforth, OBFA). In coming to this debate, I am interested in free speech, online media, and fair trials. Legally, it is a wide-open bourach.