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Issue - 401

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Reviews & Culture

The Muslims are Coming

Terrorism is probably the most studied crime in the world today. Since 9/11 a thousand new books have been added to the terrorism literature each year. Most are concerned with the same question that haunted Americans in the aftermath of 9/11: “Why do they hate us?”In The Muslims are Coming Arun Kundnani notes that the...
30 March 2015
Reviews & Culture

Safe spaces?

The cancellation of feminist comedian Kate Smurthwaite’s gig at Goldsmiths College in February — possibly out of fear of protests by other feminists over her views on sex work — has escalated into a row over who is allowed to speak on campuses and who decides.Different examples are being lumped together with little clarity. A...
30 March 2015
Reviews & Culture

Music in Exile

For anyone who has been lucky enough to see Songhoy Blues live, it seemed impossible that the band had no record deal — their sound is so accomplished. For sure, they stand on the shoulders of giants. It sent a shiver down the spine when at their recent Hackney show lead singer Aliou Toure introduced...
30 March 2015
Reviews & Culture

To Pimp a Butterfly

It’s been a while since I’ve heard anything from Kendrick Lamar. Before checking out this new album I took a step back to listen again to the Black Hippy Mixtape and Good Kid In A m.A.A.d City. Both are brilliant collections of work representing where he came from and the guy he wanted to be....
30 March 2015
Reviews & Culture

The Falling

The Falling is a dreamlike story of a fainting epidemic among pupils at a girls’ school. It is director Carol Morley’s first feature film, following her haunting 2011 documentary Dreams of a Life. Set in a damp England in 1969, the times are changing, but the stuffy school in which the action takes place couldn’t...
30 March 2015
Reviews & Culture

Bypass

Bypass is a moody and gritty thriller set on a council estate. There is definitely as much grit here as there are thrills. The action is never allowed to overshadow the well-researched and brilliantly realised social realism. George MacKay gives a stunning performance as Tim, a boy trying to make ends meet by whatever means...
30 March 2015
Reviews & Culture

Something Must Break

This award winning debut film, from a trans-identified Swedish film maker, explores sexuality, gender and relationships through the lives of young people living in Stockholm. Sabastian, a warehouse worker, has been born into a male body but feels female. S/he meets Andreas when he protects Sabastian from a homophobic attack. This leads to their friendship...
30 March 2015
Reviews & Culture

Leon Golub

If you stand really close to Leon Golub’s painting Gigantomachy II, the colours and brushwork are perversely reminiscent of Claude Monet’s Water Lilies. Step back and what come into view are not the lyrical gardens of Giverny, but a writhing mass of bodies on a raw canvas stripped of framing conventions, punched through with metal...
30 March 2015
Reviews & Culture

Up the Auntie?

While we do not know yet who will win the May election, it is already clear that among the biggest losers will surely be the BBC. Whatever government we have, it is certain that the BBC will be mangled and probably dismembered. When a disease-carrying rat like Jeremy Clarkson abandons the Good Ship BBC (and...
30 March 2015
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Reviews & Culture

Blacklisted

This is the long-awaited investigation of the fight of the blacklisted men and women who would not give up their fight for the right to be represented by a trade union. Blacklisted, The Secret War between Big Business and Union Activists, is a credit to the authors Dave Smith and Phil Chamberlain in the fact...
30 March 2015
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Reviews & Culture

Honourable Friends?

Green Party MP Caroline Lucas’s short book gives an outsider’s perspective on what it is like going into the House of Commons as a new MP. Some of the conventions such as the practice of referring to members of one’s own party as “honourable friend” or having a place where MPs can hang their sword...
30 March 2015
Reviews & Culture

Against the Troika

Among a chorus of commentators and news reports referring to Greece as a “spoilt child who spent all of their pocket money”, Against the Troika: Crisis and Austerity in the Eurozone strikes a resonant chord with those who ask, “Why should we pay for their crisis?” Written before Syriza came to power, but with that...
30 March 2015