RAMZY BAROUD on how Israel’s narrative collides with military failure
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Heroes and Bob Vylan
SOLOMON HUGHES give a full-throated endorsement to punk-tinged, hardcore-splashed, grimey political output of Britain's foremost rap-rock duo
Bob Vylan at the Mobo Awards
ROGER McKENZIE explains how Ibrahim Traore has sparked the flames of hope across Africa, while the Western powers seek to extinguish all attempts to build true sovereignty in the long-exploited continent
DANIEL GOVER considers the procedural complexities awaiting a Private Member’s Bill in its passage through Commons and Lords
JAMIE TUCKNUTT reports on an initiative that brings together two epochs of the city’s anti-fascist struggles
Just as German Social Democrats joined the Nazis in singing Deutschland Uber Alles, ANDREW MURRAY observes how Starmer tries to out-Farage Farage with anti-migrant policies — but evidence shows Reform voters come from Tories, not Labour, making this ploy morally bankrupt and politically pointless
KEITH FLETT traces how the ‘world’s most successful political party’ has imploded since Thatcher’s fall, from nine leaders in 30 years to losing all 16 English councils, with Reform UK symbolically capturing Peel’s birthplace, Tamworth — but the beast is not dead yet
With turnout plummeting and faith in Parliament collapsing, BERT SCHOUWENBURG explains how radical local government reform — including devolved taxation and removal of party politics from town halls — could restore power to communities currently ignored by profit-obsessed MPs
IF you want to fill your speakers with sharp, loud and sometimes funny political rap-rock this Xmas, I suggest you buy as much Bob Vylan product as you can.
I’ll try to tell you how Bob Vylan sounds by pointing to the ways they are like some other bands in the political rock rap area, but comparisons only take you so far, because they are also very like themselves. The duo are made up of singer-guitarist Bobby Vylan and drummer, Bobbie Vylan.
This band-members-all-with- nearly-the-same-name-as-the-band is not their only atypical feature: when I caught the band in Southampton last month, lead singer Bobby Vylan announced “We will be starting this gig, like all our gigs, with a moment of yoga stretching and meditation, and you are welcome to join us” and preceded to do just that, to a low guitar hum.
It is a sign of how Bob Vylan isn’t afraid of being 100 per cent “right on,” but can also carry their “right on” views with good-natured humour as well as fierce anger.
Musically the band see themselves a mash-up of punk rock and grime-y rap. The punky guitar sound is of the hardcore, slightly metal-y kind — enough for them to play well at hard rock festivals like Download. The rapping and singing are full-on political, with slogan-y choruses backed by plenty of wordplay.
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Labour’s pop-loving front bench have snaffled up even more music tickets worth thousands apiece, reports SOLOMON HUGHES
Secret consultation documents finally released after the Morning Star’s two-year freedom of information battle show the Home Office misrepresented public opinion, claiming support for policies that most respondents actually strongly criticised as dangerous and unfair, writes SOLOMON HUGHES
SOLOMON HUGHES highlights a 1995 Sunday Times story about the disappearance of ‘defecting Iraqi nuclear scientist.’ Even though the story was debunked, it was widely repeated across the mainstream press, creating the false – and deadly – narrative of Iraqi WMD that eventually led to war
Despite Labour’s promises to bring things ‘in-house,’ the Justice Secretary has awarded notorious outsourcing outfit Mitie a £329 million contract to run a new prison — despite its track record of abuse and neglect in its migrant facilities, reports SOLOMON HUGHES
