lemon revolution

A few points of notice: * Germany lacked cohesion from the very beginning; Schweinsteiger's role was rather obscure in that, rather than working in tandem with Khedira to control the game, he was constantly being forced into a wide position by the formation of Italy's midfield: -------------------------------------- Khedira ------------ ----- Schweinsteiger ---- Montolivo -------------------------- -------------------------------- Marchisio ----------------- --------- Kroos -- De Rossi --- Ozil ------------- Podolski ------ ------------------------- Pirlo ------------------------------ Montolivo was sent out with the task of barracking and unsettling any possession Germany held in central midfield, with Marchisio and often De Rossi, shadowing his pressure from a few yards behind. To find space and time on the ball, and in an attempt to orchestrate German offensive play, Schweinsteiger was forced to find pockets of space to either side of the central-midfield zone, w...

From the anti-war lyrics of Lennon, to the fierce, rasping attacks on Western institutions of The Clash, the rhythm of Britain's musical mainstream was ostensibly upheld by a cemented chord of politically radical, anti-establishment artists, who coupled the mass sale of records with popular anthems in disgust at the misuse of authority - be it the Vietnam War, or the ideological scope of the Thatcher government, for instance. Yet what appeared to be a vital string in the instrumentals of British music, appears to have vanished; bands and artists that actively engage, through musical and other, social means, in explicitly political protest, have simply disappeared. The UK singles chart only this week, was headed by Gary Barlow's song in celebration of the British Monarchy, and elsewhere, remains peppered by tunes of a typically 'misogynistic', individualistic, 'racially stereotyping', 'sexist' lyrical construct as rapper Akala describes , rather than in...

http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2012/apr/02/muslims-step-outside-antiwar-comfort-zone My comment: Medhi, as an avid follower of your polemics, I'm quite disappointed. You seem to have adopted the mainstream discourse in assuming that those of an Islamic faith 'won it' for Galloway, in ignorance of plain empirical fact. The fact is, Galloway could not have 'won it' at all by simply targeting an Islamic bloc; the so-called 'Muslim' population constitutes 38% of the Bradford West populace. Galloway won a decisive majority of 55.9% of the vote. It takes no statistical fetishist to acknowledge that, to have claimed such a victory, Galloway would have had to claw a huge chunk from pretty much every 'bloc' going; the White population at 52.6%, or the specifically Christian cohort at 38.9%. Indeed, the student population, at 11%, is reported to have voted highly in Galloway's favour as well. And this is before we even consider Labour...

So the immortal line, penned by the Squire-Brown combination, eerily asserts, with the very warnings of revolt and expression of contempt for establishment that typified the entirety of the self-titled, Stone Roses debut album. Yet was it every truly curtains for the ol' Hag and her wonderful kinfolk? So wonderful of course, thousands upon thousands of us took to the streets to be adorned by their glorious presence only last year. That the British Monarchy still stands, let alone that Liz&Co. Ltd rakes in an estimated £41.5 million per year in tax revenue , and receives a complementary ceremony in the event of a marriage, courtesy of yours truly, is enough, I will argue, to suggest that the cloth fabric was never even woven, let alone the curtain drawn on the Monarch. I recently attended a Q&A session with David Miliband, who argued the Royal Family's presence was justified by its ability to 'bring people together' and provide a sense of 'Britishness...

(Originally printed in The Mancunion: Issue 13, 20th February 2012) The Coalition is struggling. Unemployment claws stubbornly to the eight-percent mark, while national produce, fuelled by falling rates of profit, remains defiantly stagnant. An attempt to rewire the core engines of the UK economy through austerity has failed catastrophically to yield the ‘strong, enterprise-led recovery’ promised by George Osborne in his first budget statement as Chancellor. Unfortunately, it only gets worse; inflation looms well above the Bank of England’s target of two-percent, coupled with decaying wages, serving only to choke living standards for the majority. Yet curiously, the Labour Party, the principle parliamentary opposition to the Con-Lib government, appears utterly unable to establish a strong standing among the British electorate; latest polls suggest Labour to be either level, or a mere percentage-point above the Conservatives. Between the 1997 and 2010 general elections, Labour ...

John Gray's recent essay in the Independent offers an analysis of Tony Blair's premiership as Prime Minister. I've only recently been introduced to Gray's writing of which there is a substantial, recognised deal. The intro to the article welcomes Gray as 'Britain's leading philosopher', and within the essay itself, Gray defines Blair's career as "testimony to the power of neo-conservative ideas", referencing the Iraq War and Blair's unashamed belief in 'free markets' as evident of this. That Blair was and is a neo-con forms the bulk of Gray's analysis, within which Blair's key beliefs are identified; Gray cites the infamous 'Chicago speech" and Blair's theory of an ever-increasing interdependence between nations in an increasingly 'globalised' world. While this is all well and true - Blair was undoubtedly a neo-conservative - it is Gray's historical perspective that warrants examination. Gray a...