Walking on the Far Left

As I watch my years spent studying at university gradually eat away at my income like a Pac Man navigating its way through the maze of a costly student life in Portsmouth (each dot in the maze being a fraction of my tuition fees, a fine for an overdue library book, a replacement of a missing student ID, or a repair to a maintenance issue in my student accommodation, haunted by the ever present ghosts of failing economic prospects yet to come), I question the fairness of this system. I wonder if a system free of class and where income doesn't control every aspect of our lives can ever be possible. Since Tony Blair's proposal for tuition fees, this level of socioeconomic disparity with regard to education has become yet more apparent especially throughout a period of constant fluctuation and mass stagnation of economic growth during continued recovery from financial crises, especially given the many unnecessary cuts to welfare and education spending, two things that are paramount...

It is on this day 90 years ago that the British Union of Fascists, an extreme right fascist group led by Oswald Mosley (and reminiscent of Daniel Thomas' far right rioters) were chased off the streets by a strong working class opposition taking to the streets of East London, eventually successfully causing the police to stop the fascists marching any further, to show that racial hate and discrimination were not welcome in society, for London and beyond, and ultimately for 1936 and for the future. We are still a long way off from reaching the shift to a truly tolerant society, with Jews still no longer accepted for their culture and religious beliefs after being targeted in the horrific Golders Green attacks in May, and Muslims continue to face widespread Islamophobia such as with the unjustifiably brutal and violent treatment by the police received by a Muslim individual present there, and with both Muslims and pro-Palestine Jews being unfairly labelled as terrorists, along with bl...

Sylvia Plath When reflecting on Sylvia Plath's experiences of repression, exploitation and hyper-sexualisation in the capitalist and financially orientated metropolis of 1960s New York, redefined and reshaped by race, riots and mass unrest and opposition during the era of the civil rights movement, through the eyes of Esther Greenwood's character in her 1963 work, the Bell Jar, one can clearly notice the alienation and isolation of working women from society, and the profound impact this has on them physically and mentally in many ways. While somewhat appearing to be a fictional work and created with poetic licence to represent an individual perspective, as opposed to acting as a record and factual representation of the US healthcare system of the 1960s, and the support provided for women suffering from mental health issues during this period, referring to works such as the Bell Jar can prove to be important in humanising and relating back to the issues posed by a perpetually f...

Pub. Kebab shop. Burger restaurant. Theatre. Pub. Pharmacy. Supermarket. Pub. Coffee shop chain. Pub. Convenience store. Nightclub. Kebab shop. Nightclub. These are the fourteen buildings that occupy a lively commercial street in Portsmouth city centre, and the noticeable thing about this selection is that more than half of them sell alcohol, this making it all the more easy for local people young and old to grab some alcohol to satisfy their vice. Be that groups of students off for a night out, couples young and old out on date nights, working aged men downing post-work pints of kidney failure coloured ale at the Wetherspoons on the corner, gangs of youths congregating in the square sharing vapes and cans of cheap cider, and middle aged women dressed up for a theatre trip and sipping prosecco, alcohol remains a common means of bringing people together, and allowing them to find pleasure and enjoyment away from the struggles and alienation within their working lives. However, amidst th...

Sixty years ago was the first time the streets of Notting Hill got transformed into the bold and vibrant cultural buzz for which they continue to be known for worldwide. While the appearance and environmental and demographic characteristics of this part of London have all changed over time, from a small working class migrant community amidst the broad metropolis to a stylish heavily gentrified area sought out by wealthy young international professionals, its heritage and true spirit always remain a constant and ever changing milestone in the celebration of unity, diversity and the shared fight against racism.  This fight, in the light of Professor Jason Arday's tragic death, the war and conflict within the Middle East, and the continual racial hatred and division within society through mass anger against immigration, continues to be ever more important. It is in times like these that, as the people united in hope for a fairer society and sharing in our common humanity, that we shou...

Me wearing a very punk sleeveless leather jacket covered in pin badges Characterised by its vast and broad public image, and its followers taking on their trademark alternative image and way of presenting, one may view the influence of the punk movement as being merely cultural, and lifestyle based, or use the term as an all-encompassing means of describing anything vaguely alternative, individual and outside of social norms, or that would be countering existing fashionable and cultural conformity. While this is largely accurate, there is way more to punk than just a style clothing and music, and, indeed, it would be wrong to consider oneself as punk without taking into account the political dimension of the movement, the ideology adopted by individuals involved within it, and ultimately the overlaps and clear presence of similar ideals for punk movements on both sides of the political spectrum, those movements on the right arguably having become hugely over-ruled by punk movements on ...