Wisbech radicals, inertia, &c

A few quick things of note:

1. Return of the Fen Tigers – a punchy write-up of my work in the Fens for Tribune magazine.
It’s a raw piece of political commentary and reflection, darker than my earlier work and a better distillation of my thinking. It takes up the ‘broken Britain’ debate and examines the link between broken infrastructure, inertia, everyday insecurity and the far right: https://tribunemag.co.uk/2025/10/return-of-the-fen-tigers

(I wish they’d let me choose a picture, I have tons. I also gave a talk on the same topic at the OU Politics “day school” last week, which paradoxically is neither a school, nor in the day, nor at the OU…)

2. What we get wrong about unpaid carers – another gloves-off piece for a public audience, this time Transforming Society. Rather than the usual academic throat clearing about unpaid carers, their extent, economic value (yuck), I took up the question why does the status quo persist? and examined the situation of unpaid carers against the lack of public health coverage, pre-NHS. https://www.transformingsociety.co.uk/2025/10/28/what-we-get-wrong-about-unpaid-carers/

3. Althusser and Spinoza: Detours and returns – Juan Domingo Sánchez Estop’s book is now available to order. I edited this book, which originally appeared in French – not a copy-edit, but a philosophical and conceptual edit. It was expertly translated by Élise Hendrick. If you have access to a university library and take an interest in continental philosophy, then why not request this title: https://edinburghuniversitypress.com/book-althusser-and-spinoza.html

4. Last for now, Wisbech Radicals is an event I’m co-organising this Saturday 15 November in Wisbech, from 1pm. It is sponsored and funded by the national Being Human Festival of the Arts and Humanities. This is the third year in a row that I’ve organised a community-based event (previous were in Gateshead and Peterborough), and I’m delighted to be planning a walk, talks, map-making and a film screening with Lorena Hodgson, the mind behind Wisbech Radicals. There’s more information here: https://www.beinghumanfestival.org/events/wisbech-radicals

It’s likely that I’ll be giving a joint talk on Weds 26 November at 4pm, online, on “A thorn in the lion’s paw: disrupting oppressive structures / Androclean negotiations with power“. This takes up an Aesopian fable to examine creativity, language and dissent. I’m now off social media (perhaps permanently) so for an update, sign-up to the LLP Research Group here.

Beyond that, recent week have included invited briefings to Carers Trust, the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government, and NW Anglia NHS Foundation Trust, alongside trustee work for Gateshead Carers Association. We’ve also begun work now on the Barking and Dagenham Community Research Network. Higher education continues its freefall, the world is on fire, sleep is a distant memory, and so I take my relief where I can get it – recent pleasures have included rediscovering Joy Division and Alan Partridge (not yet simultaneously…)