Labour’s lifting of the two child benefit cap is a welcome example of my ancestor, Bob Stewart’s belief that ‘Everything You Get Must Be Fought For’ - thousands of children lifted out of poverty, not because of the goodness of their hearts but because of pressure from outside.

And another! Stories and interviews with the team behind one of the BBC's greatest ever TV dramas – "a revenge thriller, a mystical nuclear-and-environmental-apocalypse fable, a clear-eyed political document of the mid-1980s, a ghost story" – by me for @thequietus.com thequietus.com/opinion-and-...

I AM AN ARCHITECT! THEY CALL ME A BUTCHER. I AM A PIONEER! THEY CALL ME PRIMITIVE. I AM PURITY! THEY CALL ME PERVERTED… …SO DAMN EASY TO CAVE IN. MAN KILLS EVERYTHING!

I recall an interview where he was asked what it was like playing with Shields on stage. "I'll be watching him and just before he taps a pedal with his foot, he'll look across at me as if to say, This is REALLY going to fuck you up."

Lads- I read this on International Men’s Day and I recommend you read it too.

40 years of Psychocandy.

Watched ‘Another Country’ last night. It was ok but I am more entertained by its Letterboxd reviews.

Someone please caption this photo for me.

Four decades back a major label released a debut album that sounded like almost nothing on earth while still sounding incredibly familiar. Our man in San Francisco Ned Raggett takes stock of it all Happy Birthday to the JAMC's Psychocandy, which turns 40 today! buff.ly/nflmjN6

“The Labour Party is a moral crusade or it is nothing" Harold Wilson.

I never saw such a sight in my life.

Redrafting a piece about my great grandfather Bob Stewart's connection to the Cambridge Five and realising that this short description of Guy Burgess is actually a description of James Bond.

There’s that time they accused Stephen Lawrence’s murderers on the front page and then there’s this. The only times The Daily Mail has contributed anything remotely good to society.

This is the equivalent of scrabbling down the back of the sofa in the hope of retrieving a few pennies. We need better public services and a greener economy. We can afford that with a fair tax system. I’m sick of permanent managed decline.

Everyone’s right about Claire Keegan. Sat down and read Small Things Like These the other night and my god. New favourite author.

Stares in paraphrasing Enoch Powell.

It’s Not My War. For Remembrance Sunday I wrote about my great grandfather Bob Stewart’s experiences as a conscientious objector in the First World War. breakingthefetters.com/2025/11/09/i...

Still writing the bloody thing but at least I’ve got the cover sorted.

Just lost it at the phrase ‘poking the Russian bear’ on Channel 4 news.

Finished the Apple TV Scorsese documentary and five episodes wasn't enough, there should have been a thousand.

If anyone’s been watching the superb Mr Scorsese documentary series - what’s the beautiful piece of music playing when they’re talking about the reception of Taxi Driver? It sounds like Neu and I can’t place it.

Having a closer look at Anthony Blunt’s MI5 files. Here he’s telling Peter Wright of Spycatcher fame that my great grandfather Bob Stewart knew the identities of Blunt, Kim Philby and Guy Burgess as Lizzie Philby passed their secrets on to him in the 1940s.

Rewatching Zohran's victory speech bit by bit and it's hard not to be emotional about it - it's an appeal to hope and courage but also to the fundamental idea of living in society, together. Feels like we've been starved, often deliberately, of that kind of thinking

This is the best thing that's happened in a really really long time

🎼Start spreading the news, I’m leaving today I want to be a part of it, New York, New York Your vagabond shoes, they are longing to stray And step around the heart of it, New York, New York! 🎵🎶

people be like “this strategy of a popularly elected socialist mayor of one of the world’s largest cities pales in comparison to my strategy of organizing the vanguard party” and then pay Elon to be Verified on the Everything App

Have rallied- about to teach the Prologue of Romeo and Juliet and have come across this sonnet I wrote about Ratatouille I’d forgotten all about.

48 years ago today (4 November 1977), the New Statesman published this article about divisions in the Communist Party of Great Britain. It is the first written use that I have found of the term ‘tankie’ to describe someone who (uncritically) supported the Soviet Union.

Found out today that I’m the same age William Shakespeare was when he died so have ended up judging my achievements against his and now I’m depressed.

Centrism is the belief that society achieved perfection around the same time as you became a homeowner

A bold decision by my dad to let 8 year old me watch Edge of Darkness with him while my mum was out at her evening class. Anyway, I genuinely believe the experience did important, excellent things to my pliable, barely comprehending brain & now it is back on iPlayer & well worth watching/rewatching

When I did a Jake the Dog from Adventure Time pumpkin for Hallowe’en. Nearly sliced my hand off at one point.

✨NEW ARTICLE!✨ If you want to know about the ancient connections between dancing 💃 and fighting 🤺 run your peepers over our latest Zine article by @corrugatedcavalier.bsky.social www.workingclassicists.com/zine/kd36lab...

Early morning rabbit hole. Looking through Anthony Blunt’s MI5 files and the earliest mention linking him with my great grandfather Bob Stewart is this 1955 phone call from Ewan Phillips one of the ‘Monuments Men’ and later first director of the ICA. 1/2

RIP Prunella Scales. My favourite performance of yours was this BBC version of Joe Orton’s What The Butler Saw alongside Timothy West. It is wonderful. youtu.be/a5Q8btlQLfE?...

This reflection on Prunella Scales has been put up by The Guardian, and her son, Samuel, reckons she'd have loved it. Definitely worth sharing here: www.theguardian.com/stage/2025/o...

This Land Is Your Land: “After you’ve stopped the boats; after you’ve deported your neighbours; after you’ve waged war on woke, shrunk the state even further and redesigned the economy in the mould of Javier Milei what happens when people realise their lives are still shit?”

Here I ramble on about Caerphilly, Gillian Welch, David Rawlings, Woody Guthrie and Friedrich Engels. This Land Is Your Land. breakingthefetters.com/2025/10/28/t...

One take away from Manchester is that they should really make more of its musical and cultural history as there’s barely any reference to it in the built environment.

What if we kissed by the Engels statue near Tony Wilson Place?

This clip isn’t from last night’s gig but when Gillian Welch & David Rawlings played it I melted into tears - I Hear Them All/ This Land Is Your Land. youtube.com/watch?v=8yZD...

Already seen Justin Sullivan in the queue.

Last time I saw Gillian Welch & David Rawlings in Manchester I stood next to Justin Sullivan from New Model Army at the urinal so excited to see what tonight will bring.

God, "Intergalactic" is a miracle. More songwriters need to use the AAAAAAAAAAA rhyme scheme

Rn.

In the 1921 Caerphilly by-election Bob Stewart, my great grandad, got 2592 votes and 10.3%. The CPGB were never an electoral powerhouse. Labour only just scraping past that figure in 2025 with 3713 and 11.02% is shocking.

Alan Carr has definitely read The Shock Doctrine #TheTraitors

If you’re vaguely left wing and find yourself on the opposite side of an argument from Labour on something you care about, then you assume they’re just misguided. Then, you notice they are being wildly dishonest and often very unpleasant. Then you notice they oppose you on most stuff you care about.