In the mid-to-late 2000's myself and small band of Twitter users united under the #atheist hashtag, to discuss the lies and misinformation being spread on that then relatively new kid on the social media block by conspiracy theorists. It was a more innocent time, when everyone knew Sarah Palin was mad, and anyone who said otherwise was just as easy to spot. Of these occasionally hilarious, often mind-numbingly incoherent exchanges, between those of us championing simple rationalism, versus those with a penchant for bullshit, grew a relatively popular podcast, called Fundamentally Flawed, and it's community of contributors organised via the now defunct Google Plus. A firm favourite from the non-rational side of the equation was a self-styled biblical science communicator and spell-check averse man of Jesus named Joe Cienkowski. Joe was my first direct experience of someone so entrenched in the world of religion-based pseudoscience and anti-government conspiracy theor...
As the Labour Party begins coming to terms with the scale of the 2019 Election defeat, I felt it was the right time to put some of my thoughts out there as an (they tell us not to call ourselves) ordinary member of the Stockton South Constituency Labour Party. In the time since joining the party I've come to know some amazing people, and seen the selflessness with which some of our activists give all of their time to the unglamorous side of local politics — working with people who simply wouldn't have a voice, if it weren't for the organisational network which the Labour Party provides. This underlying foundation of good people, doing the best they can to shield some of the most vulnerable people in our society from the vicious and calculated Tory attacks upon them and their community, is at once the light at the end of the tunnel, in terms of rebuilding our party for the future to win power again, as it tells the proud history of our movement and its roots in the ind...