The next wave on tumblr

One of the mysteries of the current British Labour government has been its obsession with the party group known as Blue Labour, which espouses a form of social democracy that marries social conservatism with progressive economic policies. This isn’t just a parochial issue: it seems to be a feature of many struggling social democratic parties at the moment. (Andy Warhol, Vesuvius. Photo: Andrew…

I was invited to talk about futures recently at the Royal College of Defence Studies In London. Most of the event was unattributable, but our initial remarks were recorded, so I can share a version of them here. Futures, in its modern version, is a child of the Second World War. It has two foundational strands, one in the United States, funded by the Department of Defense, and associated with…

Image by Rombo, via Unsplash I’m running out of time here to mention the 2025 edition of my off-centre seasonal/ Christmas playlist, but just in case anyone is trying to extend their seasonal cheer for a few days more, and need some impetus from somewhere, here it is. I’ve been assembling these now since 2018, and my son asked me this year what my criteria were for including tracks in the…