UK – For the Many not the Few

Jeremy Corbyn at Labour Party Conference

Mr Corbyn was met with a rapturous standing ovation in the Brighton Centre, for his first conference speech since the his party gained seats at the election and stripped Ms May of her Commons majority.

He slammed the Tories for still believing in “the same dogmatic mantra” which he summed up as “deregulate, privatise, cut taxes for the wealthy, weaken rights at work, delivering profits for a few, and debt for the many”

He added: “It’s as if we’re stuck in a political and economic time-warp.”

Mr Corbyn then went on to set out his vision of “socialism for the 21st century” – drawing in nationalised utilities, new fines for business and taxes for the wealthy.

He said: “Our economy no longer delivers secure housing secure well-paid jobs or rising living standards.

“There is a new common sense emerging about how the country should be run.

“That’s what we fought for in the election and that’s what’s needed to replace the broken model forged by Margaret Thatcher many years ago.”

Dale Hansen Unplugged – US Anthem Protests

Dallas sportscaster Dale Hansen is a fixture of the sports media scene, and his "Unplugged" segment on ABC affiliate WFAA has never shied away from the sometimes-insidious politics of the sports world.

On Monday, Hansen nailed it again, defending the #TakeAKnee protests that swept the NFL last weekend in a clip that's quickly becoming required viewing on Twitter.

Most notably, he refuted the notion that a protest during the national anthem is inherently disrespectful to veterans. (Hansen served in Vietnam.)

"My best friend in high school was killed in Vietnam," Hansen said. "Carroll Meir will be 18 years old forever. And he did not die so that you can decide who is a patriot and who loves America more."

Hansen also took several shots at Trump, including at the president's decision to call players who protest "sons of bitches" despite "[saying] nothing for days" about the white supremacist violence in Charlottesville.

"If you don't think white privilege is a fact, then you don't understand America," he said.

Lecture by Prof. Gyanendra Pandey 2015 – Politics of Indifference

What is the meaning of politics and democracy at any time?  I think that these are questions that need to be asked. It is not self evident but they are being treated today as though we already know what we are talking about ... a shift from the level of policies good bad, indifferent to the question of power and privilege in our societies. I suspect it would lead us very quickly to recognise a really quite new ethos that surrounds our political and governmental discourses in the late 20th and early 21st centuries ... a politics of indifference … I suggest first that there is a politics that you can see in the politics of callousness and you can see in  bureaucratic obstacles presented all of the time, procrastination, process that will take forever sometimes. An indifference that might be called apathy, disinterest, callousness … I suggest to you that much modern governmental and political practice is marked by that. We know this perfectly well its just something we ought to remind ourselves its something that we need to mark … My second concern is with indifference to difference to the very condition of plurality of different ways of being of different ways of thinking, of different views of different practices of life.

The Jute Mill Song

This song is probably one of the most famous & lovely folk songs ever out of Dundee (already represented here in some very beautiful & interesting versions on youtube !)  (as far as I know though, this particular version of the song has not been posted until now) I think this  rendition by Lowland Folk which I took off my precious vinyl record 'Coorse & Fine',is certainly one of the best recordings ever of this song and deserves to be accesible to the audience which youtube provides. Most people would know that the famous words were written by that remarkable Dundonian woman, Mary Brooksbank who had a complete knowledge of what she was talking about as she herself spent her earliest working days (from age 13) slaving in the mill. In putting together the visual images for this I couldn't help noticing how the photos  I found  bore witness to Mary's poignant lyrics about the social conditions in those days. For example, one of the explanatory captions on the photo of the two wee bairns on a Dundee street, mentioned that one of them already had  bow legs due to rickets...

Horses Sing None of It – Peggy Seeger

Legendary feminist songwriter, folksinger, multi-instrumentalist & sister of Pete & Mike; 45 years of concerts, 20 solo & over 100 joint recordings