In times of excessive optimism it is important to maintain equilibrium. Soft Cell - Little Rough Rhinestone King Of The Slums - The Pennine Spitter Elbow - I’ve Got Your Number Morrissey - Yes I Am Blind The The - Love Is Stronger Than Death Porno for Pyros - Pets Black Francis - Angels Come T...

Keith Kahn Harris writes about the diversity in Britain’s Jewish community in Prospect, as flagged up by Bob From Brockley. The crux: “While figures from the Community Security Trust show there has been a rise in attacks on Jews in Britain in recent years, there are deep divisions within...

Demonstrate against faith-based tribunals - be they Muslim, Jewish, Hindu or whatever. A demonstration in Central London organised by One Law For All. What I won’t be demonstrating against is Muslims or Islam, Jews or Judaism, Hindus or Hinduism. I’m secularist but not anti-religion. Yes...

I hope Israeli Arabs vote and don’t boycott. The Tamil electorate was forced (I think) by the LTTE to boycott the Sri Lankan elections and a ceasefire architect was replaced with the current scourge of the LTTE,  Mahinda Rajapaksa. Faith in politics is hard to keep, but the alternatives can b...

The late, great - great - Silver Jews.       ...

Last year I took Jews for granted in my Holocaust commemoration, which I feel sorry about. This year, the theme of Holocaust Memorial Day is Stand Up To Hatred - of gay people, conservative Muslims, Jews, black people, disabled people, and other groups, no matter who is doing the hating. This is a g...

Matt is an engineer (though not a terrorist). The other night when he was at the RSA listening to a pundit explain the financial crisis, something chinked with Ronan Point: “This actually has a link to structural engineering where various previous failures, most famously in this country Ronan ...

I think you really have to know hard graft to appreciate what Motown meant to the factory workers of Detroit on a Friday and Saturday night. So I’m quite sheepish to admit that everything about it moves me except most of the music. One exception is Stevie Wonder’s Innervisions, which rea...

It’s instant gratification. It’s like Twitter for music lovers. As well as tweeting, you also blip. There’s a great deal of music in their library. So I blipped. Smash It Up, by The Damned How To Fight Loneliness, by Wilco Rattled By The Rush, by Pavement A Certain Someone, by The ...

This morning I reported dog fouling on Fix My Street dot com, and tonight I witnessed a dog getting the shit battered out of her. It’s been one of those nights where you are surprised to make it home. Central London was a zoo. I saw a police van on sirens screech to a halt just [...]...