I've built a permanent base on the dark side of my arse.

The older Blair gets the more he looks like Steve Bell's cartoon of him.

Calderdale Stop The Boats on Facebook is an excellent post-Cold War Steve local-satirical page. www.facebook.com/CALDERDALESTB

Verily I did cast ye olde stinking sponge, blackened with the sins of many suppers and corruptiones of dried gravy, into the pit of refuse, and did raise up in its stead a new vessel of cleansing, for the former things are passed away and behold all things are become new, yea and like whatnot.

The Spirit Of The Age in a blister pack.

Launched The General today at the legend that is Peter Barlow's Cigarette (#52). Thanks to Erratum Press for the photograph and support. And to PBC crew for hosting.

This is TODAY, a free event! Come along and experience the hexing live!

When Burnham became Mayor a friend described it as a 'Coronation’ rather than election. Nobody wanted a Mayor, or specifically him, but there he was, the future perfect. Strikes me he might be rather too used to these magical journeys, from zero to Mayor, from no seat to Prime Minister, in a Tardis.

This is TOMORROW! Be there for the GENERAL hexing.

Here we go: a GENERAL hexing of the Neo-archons, B there or B [ ]

Who on earth votes for the Lib Dems? Does anyone know?

I will be launching my latest experimental text THE GENERAL at the legend that is Peter Barlow's Cigarette. There or be [ ]

Charles' speech will inc. subtle allusions which Trump will interpret how he wants - range includes 'the moon is made of shoes' - then forget even that. Charles' sucking-a-boiled-sweet face is one v. posh men pull when they're doing something they don't want to. The women behind. An end to all this.

A good article in FT by Stephen Bush - I don't always agree with him - about Reform's proposals for school history curriculums. He explores the ambiguity well. I think 'OK put all that on the table, then the youth will take it apart again.' Keep smoking those fags Nigel they're really good for you.

review copies of THE GENERAL available (pbk/pdf) www.erratumpress.com/the-general @stevehanson.bsky.social

Richard Tice is a stick of excrement.

The chip butty must be delivered over from the hands of sinners, come see the place where it lay, firstfruits of those who've fallen asleep, and being raised from the dead, will never die again, death no longer has dominion here, diastolic, systolic, apostolic, just shut up and eat the thing yeah.

New Sponge Day.

I will be launching my book The General at Peter Barlow's Cigarette, date TBC. Here's a li'l vid until then. www.youtube.com/watch?v=nZAX...

Peter Barlow’s Cigarette number fifty-odd. Saw Ansgar Allen and Kate Feld, had to skedaddle for a two-year old’s bedtime. Ansgar read a tract by an anonymous author on 'the Vice Chancellor' and Kate new work about negotiating lockdown as a single mum. Pictured here, Tim Allen talking to some chairs.

reading, PBC #51 Sat, from THE TONGUE MACHINE & the other one (photo by @stevehanson.bsky.social - thanks to the organisers)

"Come friendly bombs" etc.

Out into the world it goes!

Thank you to Erratum Press for the work they put into this book. I'll be launching it officially and reading from it at the launch, date TBC.

Here's the link: www.erratumpress.com/the-general

I've posted an extracts from The General on my Substack. If you could order a copy of the book it would really help a great independent press, Erratum in Sheffield. The extract is my exploded letter to Yddub, or JD Vance. The link to order will follow: bittertonic.substack.com/p/the-genera...

Posting The General to the National Poetry Library on the South Bank. They've been taking my work since the two volumes of SING. I don't think of myself as 'a poet' but an experimental writer.

Hesgeth's a big fucking fart.

The first verdict on The General is in, from Scott Thurston: 'As fierce and uncompromising as ever' he says. If you could order a copy it would help a very innovative small press survive, they are run on shoestring budgets and enthusiasm. Here's the link: www.erratumpress.com/the-general

PBC. Ansgar Allen's reading is going to be very interesting... GO!

This is what a care package from Shane Moritz looks like. I particularly liked the box this time, done up like a bit of textured wallpaper partition with some skirting at the bottom.

A link where you can buy the new book might be useful too. Self-promotion is not a natural skill for me! www.erratumpress.com/the-general

You can still get copies of Proceedings from the mighty Knives Forks and Spoons Press, click on the link here. Cover art for that book came from some pieces I made as part of a group show at Castlefield Gallery in... 1687. www.knivesforksandspoonspress.co.uk/product-page...

Cover painting by my old colleague Dick Chappell and opening quote by Keith Kahn-Harris. These two things focused what was up to that point a sprawling text. There's a bluesky post here explaining it a little more. bittertonic.substack.com/p/the-general

Wonderful to receive copies of The General today, a sort-of follow-up to my Proceedings of 2021. Erratum Press are a great publisher, a joy to work with at every stage, and they do work with you. The books look great, Dick Chappell's cover painting reproduced beautifully @erratumpress.bsky.social

Maybe The Donald can regime change himself? "My patience with this Trump guy is wearing thin, the ships are turning around now, god bluss ah-murka."

@nightingalesuk.bsky.social Great gig at The Trades! Love the 5-piece lineup. Tight, no space between songs, no encore, bang bang bang, perfect! Also papped yr aftershow weave past us, and Hebden Post Office...

I can no longer look at this without seeing a postmodern spoof.

Lovely to see Matt Goodwin choke on his own sense of entitlement as an actual working-class candidate takes the seat he assumed was his. The empty prophet, the morbid symptom of the digital age, the anti-migrant sentiment stoker, your self-awarded role as tribune is wearing toga-thin. Fuckety-bye.

'The erg was a sea of dunes, waves upon waves.'

'On Arrakis, shadows were life’s only shelter from the killing sun' backslash margarine consolidation news.

My Substack is out. A longer piece this time, pushing at something else. bittertonic.substack.com/p/farewell-t...

Mandy Mandy Mandy, how delicious your downfall + MMU's knee-chewing statements distancing themselves from their former Chancellor are pure entertainment too: an institution that's a damp cardboard diorama with drawn-on Doric columns, covering over a kind of intellectual doss house. Fuckety-bye.

@keithkahnharris.bsky.social Doctor KKH, I reacted to one of your posts (over at 'the other place' in 2024) by barfing up a whole book, which found a publisher (Erratum). I explain this in a substack post (thought you might want to know). bittertonic.substack.com/p/the-general

Here's a substack post which provides a little more context about my new book, The General. bittertonic.substack.com/p/the-general

Here it comes, on the same lane but in the opposite direction, A REPUBLIC.

My Substack is out! Give me a follow if you like it. bittertonic.substack.com/p/doing-it-f...

Thrilled to see this book of mine coming out via the wonderful Erratum Press, a joy to work with. A cathartic blast from behind the pram, a speak-to-text hexing of the arsehole pretend gods currently strutting around the debating chambers. Get yourself one, take its ride, feel a tiny bit better.

Fuckety-bye.