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SubscriptionsSection: Culture
History, music, cooking, travel, books, theatre, film – but also with an eye on the ‘culture wars’, nationalism and identity.
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Alt-Right Bantz: Satire-Bros and Ho, Ho, Hos…
Katy Brand takes a withering look at Dankula, Benjamin, Batten and Galloway and how comedy seems to have been co-opted by authoritarians.
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In the Smoke of Notre Dame: To all the Churches I’ve Loved
As the embers cool in the devastated sections of Notre Dame de Paris and the world comes together to restore it, it seems a good time to reflect on the effect that historic churches and cathedrals have had on my own life.
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Nashville: Live Your Country Music Fantasy
Everything in moderation – including moderation! Kyle Taylor prescribes a trip to Nashville for anyone who has had too much of not enough.
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THE UPSIDE DOWN: Is Alexander Dugin Putin’s Brain?
John Mitchinson on the ideologue who revived ‘Eurasianism’. Is Dugin really the Rasputin behind a more aggressive Kremlin? Or is he another post-truth prank?
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SCIENCE HOOKER: Born Perfect –Scientists Speak Out Over Genetic Editing of Human Babies
Adi McArtney wonders whether germline editing is humanity simply taking Darwinism off autopilot or is a dark new chapter of divisive social engineering
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WORD OF THE WEEK: poacher-turned-gamekeeper (n.)
Calling out the paralysis that Brexit has wrought upon to our political system, Oborne, the former political editor of the Leave-supporting Telegraph, bravely broke ranks and confessed that now was the time “to take a long deep breath.” And crucially, he admitted that doing so might now entail, “rethinking the Brexit decision altogether.”
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Get Stoned – Therapy, Neolithic Style
Mike Stuchbery argues that we need to take a salutary walk in the shadow our our ancestors to reconnect with their hopes and fears
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The Good, the Bad, and the Smelly – Review of Sisters Brothers
Chris Sullivan celebrates the gritty revisionism of the modern Western, but wonders whether Bad Smells alone are Good Enough
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REBEL GUIDES: HOW TO LIVE THROUGH CRISIS TOGETHER
The Activist Hub. The place where you can hear about the latest action on the scene, fill up your calendars and maybe even do something to help from the comfort of your screen.
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The Story of Brexit is the Story of Empire: Why Did Asian Immigrants Vote to Leave the EU?
The complicated love-hate relationship of immigrants from former colonies with the British Empire cannot be ignored if lessons are to be learned in post-Brexit Britain, says Hardeep Matharu
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Usurpers Three: the First Hard Brexit Propelled us into the Dark Ages
The Count of the Saxon Shore recalls how an aggressive Leave Campaign led to de-industrialisation and porous borders
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Usurpers Two: How Britain became a Haven for Rebels from the Classic European Superstate
The Count of the Saxon Shore continues his saga of the First Great Brexit – from the Roman Empire – and fostered the forerunners of Nigel Farage
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WORD OF THE WEEK: expugnancy (n.) conflict, contrariness; mutual opposition of principles
Last week was a week of reappraisal and reconsideration. According to the latest polls, the UK had seemingly morphed into a Remain-backing country. While in order to ensure that a Brexit of any kind somehow comes to pass, many prominent Leavers had reassessed their opposition to Theresa May’s withdrawal agreement, and had thrown their full…
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SCIENCE HOOKER: Learning to Kill
What are the consequences of handing over life and death decisions to a machine in combat, even with tokenistic human oversight?
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FILM REVIEW: At Eternity’s Gate
Willem Dafoe’s performance as Van Gogh is “beyond brilliant” says Chris Sullivan, who ponders whether creativity is always close to madness.
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Spotify and YouTube Fight To Keep Artists’ Royalties Ridiculously Low
Digital platforms greed and lack of support for music artists knows no boundaries and remains suspiciously concealed from the general public…
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‘Ramblin’ Donald: Why 7,000 Republicans Could Never be Wrong
John Cleese wonders why Trump supporters are not terrified by his ramblings. And then the awful truth dawns…
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Stuchbery’s Histories: What Regiswindis Teaches Us
Mike Stuchbery takes a brief holiday from the tensions of the here and now to wonder why all those lives of the saints tend to end quite badly.
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Why are Young People So Bothered about the ’80s?
The tolerance and acceptable of 1980s Britain is to be admired far more than Dallas, big shoulder pads and synth pop, says Chris Sullivan.
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Rebel Cities: Rebel Reports 2019
Byline Times is happy to team up with Rebel Cities to provide a weekly news and calendar service for activists.
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Rebel Cities: Activist Hub – Calendar 2019
In the vein of constructive journalism, Byline Times is happy to team up with Rebel Cities to bring latest reports of activist events from around the country.
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WORD OF THE WEEK: mentimutation (n.) a change of mind
The UK, according to the latest polling, is now chiefly a Remain country. At the opposite end of Brexit spectrum, this week a handful of prominent Leavers performed a swift volte-face and decided to throw their full support behind Prime Minister Theresa May’s contentious Brexit deal.
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THE UPSIDE DOWN: Why Britain Owes So Much to the Navvies
John Mitchinson explores the transformational contribution, too easily overlooked, by the labourers who built the country’s canals and railways.
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Mood Based Travel: AmsterDAMN
Want to forget the world isn’t a giant flaming dumpster fire for a few days? Then fall into this storybook European city
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THE UPSIDE DOWN: Gene Genies
John Mitchinson turns his curious eye towards the Brave New World of Epigenetics – what is ‘On’ rather than ‘In’ our Genes.
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Tribalism is Killing Us: There is no Them, Only Us
Tina Gharavi on the explosion of white male rage and the unconscious bias that ‘there is a ‘default person at the centre of power’
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Investing in Women’s future
After a Whitehall review exposed continued problems, Ms Suffragette highlights female entrepreneurs who have overcome barriers preventing women from entering the business world – and thrived.
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Usurpers One: Two-Thousand Years of Brexiters
The Count of the Saxon Shore recalls some of the post-Roman pirates and renegades who promised to ‘Make Britain Great Again’
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Headlining St Patrick’s Day Festival Will be Tinged with Brexit Sadness for Irish Songwriter Don Mescall
Prolific songwriter Don Mescall will be headlining the St Patrick’s Day Festival at London’s Trafalgar Square.
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Ben is Back: The Film that Dares to Tackle the Opioid Epidemic
Undeniably, the opioid/heroin epidemic sweeping the United States is the greatest drug endemic to ever hit the country. Indeed, more people died of overdoses in 2017 than all US military personnel killed during both the Vietnam and Iraq conflicts and more than those killed by guns, car, AIDS in any single year in the US.
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There Never was a Hard Border: Paddy was a Brit
As he patrols his British forts guarding against Anglo-Saxon invaders, the Count of the Saxon Coast recounts another true story from the first great Brexit, sixteen hundred years ago.
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THE UPSIDE DOWN: Early and Often – A Short History of Fixing Elections
John Mitchinson on the not-so-recent history of rigging the vote, bribing voters with booze and voter suppression, using whiskey
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How to win an Oscar in one easy lesson
Journalist and DJ Chris Sullivan on the tired “magic formula” for gaming the Academy Awards system
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The Foederati: How the English were the Original Federalists
The Count of the Saxon Shore provides another insight into the ‘Great Brexit from Rome’
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How Repression in Belarus and Revolution in Ukraine Provides a Warning and a Lesson for Brexit Britain
Natalia Kaliada of the Belarus Free Theatre and Mark and Marichka Marczyk explain how protestors can’t abandon the barricades if they are to defend their freedoms.
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Sharkey, Skydance and Sandals: Women Steal The Show
Feminism continues its roller-coaster ride in 2019. Justice for Women has successfully supported Sally Challen’s bid for a re-trial on the grounds that her former husband, who she killed in 2010, exerted coercive control over her. Emma Thompson’s resignation letter from the Skydance movie-in-the-making ‘Luck’ has been hailed as a “rallying cry” for the Time’s…
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Shanghai: What the Future looks like
Need a kick up the bum to get you moving again? Shanghai is the spot. It’s a global city on the rise and there’s no shortage of interesting, exciting and inspiring sites, sounds and tastes to leave you feeling ready to take on the world.
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Stuchbery’s Strange Histories: the Sad Tale of Gesche Gottfried
Millennials, and the generation that followed them, have often been painted as self-obsessed, image-conscious, fixated on the picture that they present to the world. But we only need look at the sad tale of Gesche Gottfried to understand that we’ve always been vain creatures.
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THE UPSIDE DOWN: Mould Breakers – the Magic and Mystery of Shrooms
If this column were to have a mascot, it would be a mushroom. Fungi are everywhere, they are important, they are deeply weird and we know very little about them.
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Dear White Gay Men: Racism is Your Problem, not Ours.
Whistleblower and digital activist Shahmir Sanni launches his column: RACE AND REBELLION
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Tribalism is Killing Us: 40 Years of Zipper Blues
Tina Gharavi launches her new regular column on Tribalism with a tour of the Iranian Revolution, Exile The Smashing Pumpkins, and how Brexit is making Britain an alien place.
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My Old Dutch: How Megan Markle Exemplifies Englishness
The Count of the Saxon Shore welcomes the Duchess of the South Saxons, and the arrival of her heir, with that ancient Mercian salutation: “‘Ay up me duck.”
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THE UPSIDE DOWN: Dead Centre – the Collective Avoidance of Dying
For most of us in the so-called developed world, death is rarely confronted head-on. At best, it’s ‘the rumble of distant thunder at a picnic’.
