Month: April 2015

Classy War

Posted on 29th April 2015 in Elections, General

Class War: the changing face of a political culture.

As a political activist at University, nationally, Class War was a very loud and visible presence on the student and youth political scene. Not so much politics as political culture.

Bashing the rich seems to be a mainstream political cause to the Left of British politics today, indeed of ‘Progressive’ politics everywhere. Didn’t work out for President Hollande in France, but the Left has always been big on rhetoric and short on delivery. Read more… »

Tags: Andrew Neil, Class War, Daily Politics Show, Monster Raving Loony Party, Socialism

the message formula

Posted on 22nd April 2015 in General, Media

The underlying formula of media training is a factor in undermining public confidence in politicians; with the electorate switching off, and seeking ‘straight-talking’ from any quarter.

The car crash interview when Natalie Bennett, leader of the Green Party, was at LBC was an early moment of electoral excitement for the media.

listen to ‘Natalie Bennett’s Awkward Interview: In Full’ on audioBoom

Widely shared and ridiculed. Bennett apologised to the Party, and it was announced she would be undertaking some ‘media training’. The news was welcomed by those involved in media training. Read more… »

Tags: Conservative Party, Green Party, Labour Party, LabourList, Media, Media Training, Social Media, UKIP

Contested Identities

Posted on 11th April 2015 in Book Review, General, Review, Unionist

The Contested Identities of Ulster Protestants:
edited by Thomas Paul Burgess & Gareth Mulvenna.

The book is prefaced as a response to co-editor Thomas Burgess’s uncomfortable encounter where:

“… a young woman with impeccable Irish Republican credentials spoke up forcefully, and advanced her sure and certain hypothesis that there did not exist – neither could there ever exist – any legitimate or worthwhile expression of a valid or meaningful cultural contribution emerging from the Ulster unionist or loyalist tradition.”

We’ve all been there. Read more… »

Tags: Alister McReynolds, Billy Hutchinson, British, Darach MacDonald, Eoghan Harris, Gareth Mulvenna, Graham Reid, Jim Webb, John Bew, John WIlliams, Karen McCarthy, Loyalist, Malachi O'Doherty, Neil Symington, Progressive straightjacket, PUL, Ruth Dudley Edwards, Sam McCready, Thomas Burgess, Ulster Protestant, Unionist

dissenting

Posted on 4th April 2015 in Capitalist, Dissenting, General, Unionist

Due to a Denial of Service attack in 2014 the original thedissenter had to be taken offline. Moving hosting to a larger more secure service and putting some additional protections in hand should mean such an attack will not have similar consequences. That’s the plan. This time too, there is backup! We may have been able to recover many of the previous articles despite there having been no backup, and these will be updated and reposted/restored as soon as possible.

Full dissenting service will resume shortly.