Dan Taylor

There’s something very worrying happening here. It’s in the language, in the kinds of terminology that is getting deployed to describe people. Under the carapace of a resurgent right-wing populism is a disaffection. An anger which is against the political establishment, against politics of all kinds, but with something more to it, too. It is…

No, the system is not good. I’ve seen a lot of people get worse when they get here. There is nothing for them. They come into the system, and they are here for years… You see [Mr Z], he was at [a nearby homeless hostel] a few years ago, a mental health place, then he…

I just tell people what they want to hear, mush. I’m an expert at that, fucking… Psychologically reading people. They don’t know what they’re giving away. I can read you like that. You think I can’t bruv? I know you. I can figure you out. People’re more worried about their fucking selves than what they’re…

Change isn’t possible, change is. People tell me I’m a… What’s it… Philosophy… Philosopher. I got knowledge from life. You’ve got to oof and boof it. Yeah boy! Fight. All the time. I used to be bad, do bad things, but I’m better now. But you can’t take no shit. If it was up to…

How is life man? I hear they are playing very well, your team. Palace? I don’t remember who their manager is now. I don’t really follow it, ha ha. I’m doing well my friend. Life, it’s like a circle. When you are a baby and you’re helpless, you cry out, you are alone… Then you…

Have you heard about what’s going on in France? It’s kicking off there isn’t it, big time. In the squares… Nuit Debout, yeah I think that’s it. Getting together and talking about the future… but they’re doing something about it. They’ve had enough! Good on em. They’re blockading the refineries. That’s how you do it.…

We’ve got to be grateful for what we have man. When you see someone just deteriorating, not looking after themselves like that, lost, not in themselves… It makes me think you know. Sometimes… in life! Life, haha… You think you’ve got it hardest, like God has singled you out. Oh man. Like no-one else has…

Identity, it’s all about language. You know the word persona, right. In Latin, that’s per as in through, like the English… And sona, like sonar, sound. It’s a sounding-through. But persona also means a mask. The masks they’d wear for festivals and things, they had a sound box in them to alter their voice. The…

It always comes back to time. Labour, wages. I’m a Marxist. This structural appreciation of time… It determines everything else. How much we have to work, run around. It’s the scaffolding of everything else. I believe in a right to laziness. I want to work much less. Not more. You get the politics. It’s about…

I always wanted to work with people. I couldn’t say why exactly. But I was also interested in academic things. So I did a masters, and went into policy work for international organisations. Reading, research… But being stuck on a computer, in an office all day… I couldn’t deal with it, it’s not what I…