Humane socialism
Story-writing for comics By Paul Halas It’s surprising how often I’ve been asked how one becomes a comic strip story-writer. My first reaction is usually to try to figure out if the person asking me is a, just being polite, b, gobsmacked that anyone should ever dream of entering such a bizarre profession, or c, […]
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There was no antisemitism: the troubling case of Peake, Starmer and Long Bailey By Richard House, Abdul-Karim Al-Malahi, Paul Kelly, Tosh McDonald, Alec McFadden, Andrew Samuels and Chris Searle** Last week the actor Maxine Peake conducted a 1,650-word interview that appeared in The Independent newspaper in which the following words appeared: The tactics used by the […]
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By Paul Halas The blame game continues. Meanwhile… While the general public and the media obsess about Coronavirus – both those who are terrified of it and the others who think the whole issue’s blown out of proportion – and while the planet is steadily passing various tipping points of climate change, the Labour Party […]
Continue ReadingHalas & Batchelor Cartoon Films 1940 – 1995 By Vivien Halas This year marks the 80th year since my parents, John Halas and Joy Batchelor founded Halas & Batchelor Cartoons, in its day a household name responsible for over 2000 animated films. Their best-known film Animal Farm (1954) was the first animated feature to be […]
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COMICS – THE SEDUCTION OF THE INNOCENT By Paul Halas To this day there’s still an intellectual snobbery about comics in the UK, which is a shame as no other medium can communicate so well with so much economy. On mainland Europe, in the USA, in countries throughout Asia, comics are widely read by a […]
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A short appraisal by MERVYN HYDE As a baby boomer, born one month after the war in Japan ended and growing up in a working class family, I grew up along with the welfare state and the NHS. From the mid 1940s until the 1970s I saw my world opening up like a flower before […]
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How we regained faith in politics By Paul Halas Jeremy Corbyn was a phenomenon. This relatively obscure politician emerged from the backbenches to lead the party five years ago, and almost tripled the Labour Party membership. Labour became the biggest political party in Europe. While his ascension came about almost by mistake, there’s no mistaking […]
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Challenging the Neoliberal Onslaught By Richard House I recently interviewed tireless childhood campaigner Sue Palmer for the Morning Star on her campaigning work for children’s well-being.1 Sue founded and runs the excellent Upstart! organisation in Scotland,2 is the author of a number of children-related books, including her international best-seller Toxic Childhood,3 and with Sue I […]
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A cracker from the renowned Circus Chef. “A bit of isolation cooking here. A breakfast toad in the hole and not one for the faint hearted. As we released the Giffords Circus cookbook a couple of days after lockdown began, we had some time to try out some different recipes and this one had been […]
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Can we look forward to a more sustainable future when the Coronavirus virus recedes? By PAUL HALAS For the first time in years the smog has cleared over San Francisco, Beijing, Delhi and Los Angeles. The criss-cross vapour trails in the sky have been decimated and for a while bird-song could be heard in urban […]
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Was Labour’s 2019 Election Defeat a Grave – Even Terminal – Defeat for Democracy Itself? By Richard House Now the dust has settled over five months on from last December’s general election defeat for Labour and all the accompanying whirlwind of emotions and tribulations, it’s perhaps an opportune moment to take sober stock of the […]
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A new paradigm for school accountability and improvement is long overdue – and a judicial review against Ofsted currently being led by QC Michael Mansfield may well hasten the process. By Richard House In its manifesto for the December 2019 general election, It’s Time for Real Change the Labour Party refreshingly said the following: Schools are […]
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By Paul Halas Why would a sane person go fishing? How many times have I been asked that question: what’s the big deal about going fishing? For the past few decades I’ve resorted to giving a glib answer slotted into the ten or so seconds before the questioner’s eyes start to glaze over. How do […]
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