Power is a State of Mind: politics

Showing posts with label politics. Show all posts

Monday, 14 September 2026

Last Day of this Machinist Diet.

I cannot wait for this ridiculous, painful fasting experiment to be over. Yes, it’s self-inflicted. Yes, I’ve lost *some* weight. But no, it has not been fun. More later. But at least Monday’s my rest day, so I’m not staggering about with a skipping rope trying to understand Twin Peaks, which has made up most of the time of the project.

I’m on leave today to catch up with a ton of blogging. Expect also a write-up of Sheffield Comic Con yesterday with a certain British sci-fi celebrity, a sci-fi book review and a bar and restaurant review.

Wednesday night: Manchester holds host to former White House Communications Director Anthony ‘The Mooch’ Scaramucci on his All the Wrong Moves book tour. Scaramucci famously lasted 10 days as Trump’s comms guy before being unceremoniously sacked, after which he turned on his former boss, speaking out against many of his policies. Tickets, including a copy of the book, are £40. As for the event, there’s definitely a Q+A. No word yet of if there are photo ops or signings with it. I’m still undecided.

Thursday: Ryan Murphy’s latest Monster series drops on Netflix, this time covering Lizzie Borden, who I understand may or may not have hacked her parents to death in Massachusetts in 1892. Murphy’s previous Monster instalments have frequently been intriguing, violent and fun, but scattered and repetitive.

There was a Lizzie movie that came out some years ago with Chloë Sevigny in the title role. I never got around to that.

Saturday: retro entertainment day Nostalgic Oldham arrives in Parliament Square in the town centre, with classic cars, circus entertainers and the official unveiling of a huge community-created mural. I’m intrigued by the cars. 11am-4pm.

Saturday night: Manchester Nightlife this time tries out the new Dahlia Stereo, the food and house music venue in The Northern Quarter. Last weekend saw their first Saturday Night, and the Insta story looks fantastic – great music, a real club atmos, and even branded t shirts are available. 8pm, Lever St.

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Sunday, 31 May 2026

Kodo

Hmm. Perhaps I wasn’t 100% honest with last week’s post on Castlefield: there was, in fact, a bristling of drama. But to describe it properly, I’ve got to go way back to early 2020.

It’s March. Our idiot then-PM Boris Johnson shuns the COBRA meetings and locks the country down late, writes ‘bollocks’ across the COVID medical info and allows Cheltenham Festival to go ahead. COVID rips through the community and, as the months go on, 200,000 people die, including a load of my work clients (in the public sector tied to healthcare) and my mate’s dad.

Early 2021: Pfizer announce a new, fully approved, fully tested and fully safe vaccine. It’ rolled out, and immediately COVID cases start to plummet. We’re heading back to normality. Sadly, a good number of my friends reveal themselves to be anti-vaxxers, and to believe a load of horseshit conspiracies. I try to talk some sense into them, but one thing anyone knows about me: I have no power of persuasion. The only thing I can do is block them and move on.

Summer 2024: I’ve blocked loads of people. I’ve moved on from entire groups. The few friends I still have are busy with kids and careers. I bite the bullet and shell out to be a Meetup organiser. I set up Manchester Nightlife, a group for nights out in the city with a plan to see some DJs, try some cocktail bars and be the first to visit the new places. As the weeks go on, the group grows as more people join.

May 2026. I now have 900 members, with more joining all the time. Last week’s Castlefield meetup takes place. I haven’t checked every member that joins, and unbeknown to me, one of the new members, AA, is someone I’d had to block on Facebook – not even that long ago – for spamming my profile with some crank far right website with batshit COVID conspiracies. I didn’t even notice he’d signed up to the event until he rocked up at Barca. He went to the bar. I mentioned this to one of the other group members, and then AA himself brought it up. I explained I just can’t have anti-vaxxers in my social media.

And that was that. No big argument. We were civil. Then he seemed to leave early.

Fast forward a week. Last night a few of us met in Roxy Ballroom near the Printworks for this week’s meetup. a new guy mentions that he’d been reading the reviews on the site, and someone had properly gone off at me. The Meetup website hadn’t notified me about this, so it’s news to me. I take a look, and it’s AA.

‘Gossiping host allowed members to be rude and disrespectful towards me. I had a polite demeanour throughtout. Made to feel unwelcome. Very poor.’ (sic)

Jesus fucking Christ. Like I've not known him for years. Whatever. The question remains: why would you go to a meetup ran by a guy who you gave some shit to online, and who then blocked you? Did you not think that they would have something to say?

Whatever. We moved on from Roxy’s to Kodo, a new hidden bar with a Japanese theme.

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All I had to do was find the venue and show them the pic from the website to get in, and then find the actual bar. It’d be good to go back once an upcoming wedding is out of the way and I’m not avoiding alcohol. Good little joint if you can track it down.

Aside from all that, Magali Gorre liked my pic of us on Facebook. I am out of cereal, so my weight should start to drop soon, and I did a rare Parkrun with the family, getting 36:04. Watergrove in Rochdale is a tough, hilly course. And that’s the week.

Thursday, 30 April 2026

Zionists

I have an upcoming blog post about the dangers of Zionism and, more to the point, how to avoid pitfalls in life and decisions that could quite easily come back to bite you. Before I complete it, let alone upload it, I wanted to share something with you.

After the Nova Festival attacks in Israel on 7th October 2023, many people spoke up on social media confessing their support of Israel. Israel, need it be said, was established as a state in 1948 under the Balfour agreement. It is not a country that has existed for thousands of years, as many people will tell you. Palestine, in contrast, is. It was referred to as 'Pelesat' as early as 1150 BCE. When Israel was created, millenia later, this act automatically stole land off the Palestinian people, holding them under occupation. Palestine hasn’t been free since then.

I have memory difficulties. I find it hugely helpful to keep track of information on my notes app. Sadly, I’ve found I have had to keep track of other people’s behaviour, for example, if they’re supporting Israel. Israel, need it be said, are conducting a genocide in Gaza. This has been confirmed by the United Nations.

Here are some reasonably well-known people or organisations who I have been disappointed to see have expressed support for Israel post-Nova attack.

Adam Presser, Tiktok CEO

Adam Sandler, actor

Adam Szlapka, EU minister

Adidas sportswear

ADS group, defence and security

Aerosmith, rock group

Aerovironment aircraft

Agilite military gear supplier

Aimpoint, military supplier and inventor of the red dot sight

Alex Karp, Palintir CEO

Alastair Campbell, Tony Blair’s spin doctor

Allainz, insurer for Elbit Systems

Alphabet, computing services for Israeli military

AM General, Humvee manufacturer

Amy Schumer, actress

Anat Schwarz, lead reporter, New York Times

Andrew Fox, retired British Army Major

Andrew Ogles, Republican

Andy Garcia, actor

Anthony Blinken, former US Secretary of State

APCO, lobbyists

Apple software

Arnold Schwarzenegger

Ashton Kutcher, actor

Aspen, Elbit insurers

Associated Press

Atlantic newspaper

Azealia Banks, pop star

BAE Systems, British multinational aerospace, arms and information security company

Barack Obama

Barbara Streisand

Barclays

Bari Weiss, CBS editor-in-chief

BBC

Ben Shapiro, US conservative commentator

Bethanydillon_, influencer

Bill Clinton, former US president

Bill Maher, US talk show host

Boeing, aerospace manufacturer

Borussia Dortmund football club

Boy George, singer

Brighton and Hove Albion FC

British Museum

Burger King

Cadbury

Caitlin Jenner

Cambridge University

Camden Council

Caterpillar

CBS, US TV station

Cedarsoak, company ran by both Labour Friends of Israel and Conservative Friends of Israel, developed report on Nova Festival attack

Chanel perfume

Channel 4 News

Charisma Carpenter, actress

Charles Vietch, Manchester Youtuber

ChatGPT, AI bot

Chief Rabbi Sir Ephraim Mirvis

Christopher Harborne, Qinetiq’s largest shareholder

Coca Cola

Colt, weapons manufacturer

Conan O’Brien, US TV host

Conor McGregor, Irish MMA fighter

Corsight, AI, facial recognition company

Costa

Daily Telegraph

Dame Andrea Jenkyns, former Tory MP

Darren Grimes, Reform politician

Dave Portnoy, Barstool Sports CEO

Dave Rubin conservative influencer

David Arquette, US actor

David Cameron, former UK Prime Minister

David Draiman of the band The Disturbed

David Lammy, UK Labour politician

David Schwimmer, actor, Ross in Friends

Day & Zimmermann ammunition manufacturer

Dean Cain, former Superman actor, anti-vaxxer

Debra Messing off Will & Grace

Digital Barriers, who use Corsight, monitoring the Palestinians for Israel

Dior beauty cosmetics

Disney

DJ Khaled

DJI, makes drones for Israel

Dr Eli David, AI researcher

Dr Phil, US pseudo-therapist and talk show host

Drake, rapper, singer

Draymond Green, US basketballer

DUP

Economist

Elbit Systems, weapons manufacturer operating in the UK

Ellen Barkin, Hollywood actress

Elon Musk, head of X, SpaceX and Tesla, currently world’s richest person

Emily Thornberry, Labour MP for Islington

Emtan, weapons manufacturer

Eric Adams, former NYC mayor

Eurovision

Eva Lovia, adult star

Ewan McGregor, Scottish actor

Ferrero, chocolatier

Fiona Bruce, BBC News

Floyd Mayweather, retired boxer

Flyer Defense, military company

Forbes

Ford

Friends TV show

Gail’s Bakery

Gal Gadot, Wonder Woman actress, former IDF soldier

Galaxy chocolate

Gary Lubner, Israel Lobbyist, Labour donor

Gene Simmons, musician from Kiss

General Dynamics

General Electric

General Motors

Gerard Butler, actor

Ghost Robotics

Gillian Merron, Parliamentary undersecretary of state

Graham Lineman Father Ted creator

The Guardian newspaper

Harlan Coben, author

HD Hyundai

Helen Mirren, actress

Hillary Clinton, politician

Hime Marie, ‘Corndog_princess,’ adult entertainer

Honeywell Aerospace Technologies

Hotel Chocolat

Howard Stern, shock jock

Howmet Aerospace

Humphrey Cobbold, Pure Gym owner

H&M clothing

Israel Aerospace Industries

Infinidome, navigation security

In-n-out Burger

Intel, IT manufacturer

Itsjackkkb influencer

ITV

Jack Black, singer / actor

James Whale, LBC presenter

Jamie Lee Curtis, actress

Jane Fonda, actress

Jay Mack, US comedian

JCB, British construction manufacturer

Jenna Jameson, porn star

Jerry Seinfeld, US actor

Jimmy Carr, comedian

JK Rowling, Harry Potter author

Joe Biden, former US president

Joe Rogan, UFC commentator and podcaster

John Bolton, US Republican politician

John Mason SNP

John Woodcock AKA Lord Walney

Johnson & Johnson, healthcare manufacurer

Jonathan Gullis, former Tory MP

Jonathan Kestenbaum, Labour House of Lords, former IDF soldier

Jonathan Mendelsohn, former head of Friends of Israel

Jon Voight, actor

Jordan Peterson, Canadian psychologist and author

Julia Hartley Brewer, UK TV Newscaster

Julianna Margulies, Sopranos actress

Justin Beiber, singer

Justin Timberlake, singer

Kamala Harris, former Democratic VP, ’25 presidential candidate

Kash Patel, FBI head

Kathryn Winnick, Lagertha in Vikings

Katie Salmon, Love Island contestant

Katy Perry, singer

Kemi Banedoch, Conservative MP

KFC

Kid Rock, singer

Kier Starmer, UK PM

Kim Kardashian

Kinder, chocolatier

Krishnan Guru Murthy, Channel 4 News

Krispy Kreme Donuts

Larry Ellison, TikTok boss

Leonardo DiCaprio, actor

Leonid Radvinksy, deceased Onlyfans owner

Leupold, optics manufacturer

Liev Schreiber, actor

Lindsay Graham, US senator

Lindsay Hoyle, Speaker of the House, UK Parliament

Lisa Kudrow, actor

Lisa Nandy, Labour politician

Liz Truss, former UK PM

Lizzysavetsky, US influencer

L’Oreal skincare company

Lord Austin, trade envoy

Lucy Powell. Deputy PM

Luke Akehurst, Labour MP for Durham North, wore a ‘Zionist s—lord’ t shirt, heads ‘We Believe in Israel’ advocacy organisation

Lynsi Snyder, head of In-n-Out Burger

Maria Eagle, board of deputies

Mark Hamill, played Luke Skywalker

Mark Pellegrino, actor

Marriot hotels

Mars chocolate

Matthew RJ Brodsky White House advisor

May Golan, Israeli Women’s Minister

Maureen Lipman, UK journalist

McDonald’s

Melanie Phillips, newspaper commentator

Mercedes Benz

Friday, 28 November 2025

Your Party Rally in Manchester

The Very Reverend Dean Rogers Govender has headed the Chapter of Manchester Cathedral for 20 years, but last night was the first time he’d welcomed Your Party leader Jeremy Corbyn to Manchester. It’s a cold Tuesday night in November and I’ve just demolished a bratwurst from the nearby Christmas market, and I’m in the 600 year-old church for a rally with the UK’s newest political party.

Also in attendance: political activist and psychotherapist Salma Yaqoob and John Rees from revolutionary socialist organisation Counterfire.

A lady called Penny chairs the meeting in the packed church.

“People have been voiceless for too long,” says Yaqoob. “We‘ve marched, begged, we don’t want to quit.

"Green party growth,” she explains, “is not a threat. It’s a positive. 1 in 2 kids live in poverty, in one of the richest countries in the world. We’re seeing inequality rise. The Jewish and Irish were not welcome into the left. Your Party will welcome them. We have far more that unites than divides. Manchester has a key part to play in providing a left wing progressive party.”

John Rees explains that there’s a Pandora’s box in this country. “Evils fly from this box. People have had 2 governments who have ripped living standards from their hands. We’re seeing the complete collapse of Labour. Keir Starmer’s public approval is now lower than Prince Andrew’s. For that, you have to do something very bad, and he has. We have to address the problem: the rise of Nigel Farage and his far right thugs roaming the streets.

“Dad was a colliery miner. When I was born, I was the first person in my family to live in a council house and to be treated by the NHS. We were the only lucky generation. If we don’t stand in the way, Nigel Farage and Tommy Robinson are hanging in the wings. We have to come together soon. We have a simple plan make sure ultra rich will pay. There is no white working class. The working class have always been white, Irish, multi-racial. We should be part of the politics.

“In the face of employers, and Universal Credit, if you’re for unity, then join the people who will demonstrate with us in their millions. The will is there to change society for the better. If we do it we can transform society.”

Then, a local choir performs a rendition of Whitney Houston’s Step by Step, to which Jeremy Corbyn is welcomed to stage. He tells us he’s never been in the cathedral when it hasn’t been full of people. The Tory Party Conference, he reminds us, was held in Manchester last month.

Your Party leader @jeremycorbyn.bsky.social in Manchester, 25/11/25

[image or embed]
— Matt Tuckey 🇬🇧 (@matttuckey.bsky.social) November 28, 2025 at 11:29 PM

Impassioned speech from Your Party leader @jeremycorbyn.bsky.social 25/11/25

[image or embed]
— Matt Tuckey 🇬🇧 (@matttuckey.bsky.social) November 28, 2025 at 11:31 PM

Corbyn is more than aware that Manchester is clearly becoming a battleground for political parties vying for votes in the UK, so it’s unsurprising that this city is part of his travels this month. He thanks the choir for singing.

Social justice, he tells us, comes from utilising creativity. There’s a conference happening in Liverpool right now, and he’s confident they’ll come to conclusions necessary.

“I’m utterly determined to offer real practical alternatives. Every Your Party branch will be asked to run open events regarding their community incentives. We’ll join in with community together for grass roots activity, and these will include people who haven’t been involved in politics before. Our membership age is 16, but we could go lower. We also want autonomy in the party. We need to have voice of youth, to hear their personal debate, be it housing, hospitality, waiting lists.

"Since Labour were elected what have they been doing? They expelled people for opposing cuts to disability, installed Austerity 2.0, spent more in Hilton hotels, and yet 15% on hospital expenditure is on private healthcare. We’re all paying the price. £10 million has been taken in private contracts. It’s disgraceful. Staff are running around as there aren’t enough of them.

“Rachel Reeves made a speech about how she’s really concerned about not upsetting the markets.

“These are arguments that I’ll be putting to Labour tomorrow. Starmer wants to increase on defence £13 billion more on nuclear armaments. There has to be a different way of doing things. We’re being told in shorthand terms, ‘expect cuts, like on PIP.’ But $2.4 trillion was spent on armaments in 2023. Imagine if it had gone on oversees aid.

“Here’s a suggestion for Rachel Reeves: A wealth tax on homes over £10 million with that invested in housing. Secure rent so people can afford it. When it’s ‘always the fault of refugees,’ you end up with something eerily familiar to the 1930s. We’re talking Facsism. The history books will record the deaths in refugees, the genocide in Gaza, The Congo etc. People will ask, what were you doing instead of making it worse? The Left in government absolutely failed in providing for people who wanted an alternative.

“Your Party will be different. There’ll be a right to a jury trial, for example.” (Justice Secretary David Lammy recently announced that these could be scrapped.)

“We need to be united, and we will be. We’ll turn problems into positives. Your Party is your voice. What we’ll achieve together: real peace, real social justice to this world.”

At this point, Transport for Greater Manchester (Bee Network) have their Unison rep – a man in drag whose name I didn’t catch – take to the mic. He explained that drivers have had below inflation pay rises since 2009. This year they were offered an increase of 3.2%, below inflation and below the pay rises of other public sector workers. They’re on strike today (Tuesday), Thursday and Friday. Their bosses cancelled a meeting because they weren’t ready to meet the union reps. A protest, he explains, was planned for 1pm at the Town Hall the next day. “Excluding trans people won’t make people safer,” he says. “You reap what you sow. We don’t need expert opinions,” he dubiously claims. “We need facts.”

If an expert opinion doesn’t include the facts, I wonder… is it an expert opinion?

Your Party Deputy Leader Zara Sultana couldn’t make tonight’s event, but she had made a pre-recorded video message for us that organisers played on screen.

“Fascism doesn’t always come with Swastikas,” she warns us. “It comes with demonising minorities. We’ve had 15 years of austerity. People are desperate for answers. We’ve been told there is no money for housing or the NHS, but there’s always money for war. We demand welfare, not warfare. The real terrorists are the IDF. Keir Starmer called us an island of strangers, echoing Mosley. People aren’t turned off by class war, they live by it. 50 families have more wealth than the rest of us. We need to cut ties with Israel. We can’t be neutral in apartheid. It must be treated as apartheid state. We need Starmer et al in the Hague.

"Your Party is the largest socialist party since the 1950s. We will rebuild society. Power always comes from below; it doesn’t sit Power doesn’t sit in Westminster. It’s in grassroots movements. In New York, Zohran Mamdani was elected this way.

“If you want change, you have to fight for it. Thank you.”

Sultana throws up a peace sign before the video ends and the crowd file out.

Monday, 18 August 2025

Hip Hop Club Night / Jeremy Corbyn in Oldham

Club night Saturday anyone? New club Continental opened some weeks ago on South King St, off Deansgate. Think hip hop, bottle shows and potentially a few celebs. Guestlist pending. UPDATE: Guestlist full. It's not happening.

Manchester Nightlife is NOT headed there Saturday.

This weekend Manchester goes Italian for Festa Italiana, a celebration of culture, food and heritage. I might take a look time allowing. Love a pizza. Hardly Viking, but intriguing.

This week Oldham welcomes Jeremy Corbyn, leader of newly-fored Your Party. See Eventbrite for details. Thursday, Empire Suite, Chadderton, 5:30pm.

On the blog I’ve got a piece on a journaling event and another on travel passes.

Monday, 20 January 2025

Another Accurate Social Media Prediction

So yes, proven rapist and convicted insurrectionist Donald Trump in inaugurated at 5pm GMT today. I’m likely to have the Stupidest Day of my Lifetime in American History on my TV in the background. All on Blue Monday too, the Most Depressing Day of the Year.

Right.

TikTok’s future in the US looks shaky. I had predicted in 2020 that Instagram Reels would flatten TikTok: looks like it’s US Policy that’s going to cause it the most harm. That said, Instagram has half a billion more users.

I will start running Meetups again soon with Manchester Nightlife and Manchester Psychology Social Group.

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Saturday, 20 July 2024

We Have a New Government

In case you haven’t noticed, Labour are back in charge after 14 years.

The hard work now begins in wealth taxation (for which new Prime Minister Kier Starmer has no plan), education reform, (emphasis on literacy, numeracy and digital skills, which is great, but no mention of sexual and mental health), funding the NHS (some areas of the NHS are due to receive an increase) and social care model (improved pay, but little on resources) but eventually should breathe lifeblood into local councils. Let’s hope also for an updated prison system to reduce reoffending rates. The appointment of James Timpson – of Timpsons key cutters – as Prisons Minister should give more people the opportunity to turn their lives around. Timpsons is well known for taking on former cocaine dealers and other ex-cons after their release from prison. He’s had a lot of success with this scheme.

Undoing the damage the Tories have done won’t be easy. Starmer is still a Zionist and is still claiming Israel ‘has the right to defend itself’ against the people it is illegally occupying in the first place. The guy’s a former human rights lawyer. He knows damn well Israel plonked itself down on top of Palestine and said ‘I live here now’ like some kind of ethno-state version of Fargo’s Munch.

Anyway, as far as domestic affairs, here’s what I’m hoping for:

• Windfall tax on the top 10%, reducing the number of billionaires

• Education reform: basic psychology including mental health, more emphasis on nutrition, better IT skills, first aid, increased support for Special Educational Needs kids

• Vaccine mandates and vaccine passports for adults-only venues

• A second EU referendum

• Jail time for Boris Johnson and then Health Secretary Matt Hancock after their disastrous handling of the pandemic

• More funding for a bigger variety of local grass roots sports, to improve public health

• More cycle transport and PR work done to get car drivers to pay them more attention, with a better infrastructure to keep cyclists safe

• More police on the street

• More support for disability employment

• Reinstating disability benefit levels to pre-private assessment (ATOS etc.) amounts.

Not too much to ask in a democratic country, surely? Lets see what happens over the next few weeks.

Sunday, 15 October 2023

My Facebook has vanished

Not sure what I’ve done to upset the Facebook gods, but my primary account of 15 years has disappeared without trace. On Friday the 13th, of all days. I fell asleep Thursday night after a gym class, feeling more tired than usual, then woke up at an obscure hour and had only access to a backup family Facebook. I’ve tried to recover the primary account based on this Linkedin guide. Facebook sent me a code via SMS to input into their system. Then they claimed to have sent me an email with a ‘final step.’ At the time of writing this has not come through.

I’d backed up a load of pictures. Wish I’d backed up more. Why did this happen? I don’t even remember receiving a warning on Facebook. I mean, there was this from 6 weeks ago:

Facebook has removed a share of a 7 year old video of dead terrorist Elliot Roger. I can't remember why I shared this - possibly just to show how deranged he was. I certainly wasn't 'in praise' of him.

Why now? pic.twitter.com/5cFzEi3JZA
— Matt Tuckey 🇬🇧 @matttuckey on Threads (@matthewtuckey) September 5, 2023

A lot of my photos and videos are backed up on a Facebook just for family. Some are on the blog. Some videos are on Youtube. Some, potentially elsewhere due to some synching technology that I don’t totally understand.

What riles me is, last I checked, I was having to report the same Facebook friends over and over due to their barrage of anti-vaxx content. One individual in particular – someone I was good friends with for many years – went totally over the edge. I was, admittedly, screenshotting all of her conspiracy statuses, wiping out her face and name, and sharing them to X. I also reported her to Facebook every time, yet nothing was done. Why does she get to keep her account and I don’t? And is this behind my Facebook disappearing?

Or did I say something opposing the Israeli regime? I did on Twitter, and the consensus is I was right – Israel have illegally occupied Gaza and are now throwing people out of their homes and cutting off the water supply. These are human rights abuses and are illegal under international law. They are war crimes. And this has nothing to do with religion at all. But did I say this on Facebook? I have no way of knowing.

This is the particular issue I face: I used Facebook to remind me what I have done since 2007. I could search for a word or phrase to see if I’ve ever discussed it on the platform, and when. Granted, I can do the same with this blog, and X (Instagram doesn’t offer this feature to my knowledge) but Facebook is what I’d been on the longest. When you have memory difficulties, having the ability to search through what you’ve shared allows you to piece together what happened at a certain point in time. Maybe it’ll come back. Maybe it won’t. This is why it’s good to have multiple platforms. I just wish I’d backed more up.

I had a temporary cough and cold, not COVID. I’m over the worst.

Friday, 28 July 2023

A story of the Lewinsky Clinton Scandal... From Tameside

27th July, 1998: White House intern Monica Lewinsky meets with Ken Starr’s prosecutors in New York City. The next day, they announce an immunity deal for her.

In September, I start a media course at Tameside College. Here's a story of how the two seemingly unrelated worlds collide.

Friday, 9 September 2022

Nostradamus Predicted The Queen’s Passing

16th Century refuted seer Nostradamus has, if you believe the scriptures, predicted a number of world events, including The Great Plague, The Great Fire of London and the 9/11 Attacks. This week, another of his prophecies has partially come true.

Nostradamus: The Complete Prophecies for the Future was first published in 2006. Author and literature graduate Mario Reading translates a number of 4-line quatrains from Old French, interpreting metaphors and many plays on words.

Most relevant now is Quatrain 6/72, which Reading claimed would occur in 2022.

Through the pretend fury of divine emotion

The wife of the great one will be badly wronged

Judges wish to condemn such a doctrine

The victim will be sacrificed to the ignorant people.

Reading describes a ‘constitutional crisis on the death of Queen Elizabeth II, provoked by The Church of England.’ The crisis, not the death. Although feel free to theorise. Reading suggests The Church of England might be the next institution to topple. Well. I’d rather that than the NHS.

But let’s take a look at the next quatrain in the book, 10/22.

Because they disapproved of his divorce

A man who later they considered unworthy

The people will force out the King of the Islands

A man will replace him who never expected to be king.

22 relates to the year, (although these numbers – confusingly enough – don’t always marry up to the year in which the interpreted event happened). But we can assert that Nostradamus was bang on the money there.

Charles is now King, due to be crowned, but Nostradamus and Reading suggest his tenure won’t last.

‘The resentments held against him by a certain proportion of the British Population,’ claims Reading, ‘following his divorce from Diana, still persist. The pressure on him is so great, and his age so much against him, that Charles agrees to abdicate in favour of his son.’

Well, no sign of that yet.

‘The question is, which son?’

Well, if Reading were still alive (he died in 2017), he’d know now which one. This could only be William: Harry has ditched the Royal Family as they were – shock – discriminatory towards his mixed-race wife.

Perhaps William doesn’t expect to be King because of the increasing resistance to the idea of a monarchy, a lauding family of millionaires we’re supposed to idolise while the rest of us wallow in a mire of austerity. Perhaps he’s expecting abolition.

So, Reading / Nostradamus may have got the year of Queen Elizabeth’s passing right, but there’s some question over King Charles’ tenure. Will his divorce and second marriage in fact lead to the disestablishment of The Church of England? Will he abdicate? And how long will the Royal Family last?

Sunday, 30 January 2022

I Alone Can Fix It

What is it about American politics I find so fascinating? I guess there’s a huge dichotomy between the country’s developments (Charles Fritz installing the first solar panels on the roof of his New York home in 1884, for example) and their flagrant inability to get gun violence under control (second highest gun-related death rate in the world, after Brazil). Politics oversees all of this.

For four years, The States had a reality TV star, twice-bankrupted businessman, as a president. So of course, his one term ended in a riot.

I’ve spent the last 3 or so months reading I Alone Can Fix It, an expose on Donald Trump’s final year in office. Written by two Washington Post journalists, Carol Leonnig and Philip Rucker, the book details, in chronological order, the numerous challenges facing the President that year, and his blatant inability to rise to them professionally.

What becomes apparent quite early on in the book- with the final year looming ahead- is that Trump was not happy to concede defeat in the election, were it to happen. He was, as noticed by many other journalists, living in a fantasy world. The book leaves no doubt that, as the results of the 2020 election started to show Joe Biden as the President Elect, Trump was already planning the insurrection. Those Republican senators voting not guilty in his trial were nothing other than traitorous bastards.

Compiled by hours of interviews with key people in the Trump administration, and taking in the perspectives of local law enforcement and The National Guard, IACFI shows the gradual decline of any semblance of order and leadership from the White House, resulting directly in a deadly insurrection. 5 people lost their lives on January 6th. Hundreds of others were injured. The book leaves no doubt that one man ultimately was responsible: Donald J Trump.

IACFI Is a weighty, clinical expose, brilliantly compiled and presented by two of America’s finest journalists.

Sunday, 12 December 2021

Politician’s Son Story Churns On

Some weeks ago I detailed this bloke at a club, dressed as a hammerhead shark, asking people to delete pictures of him as ‘his dad’s a politician.’ I sent this on to celeb gossip rag Popbitch who shared the details (sans picture) in their weekly email under their ‘big question’ section.

This week’s edition features a guess from a reader asking if it’s Euan Blair. Former PM Tony Blair’s son. I can’t say it looks like him at all (Ewan’s too ginger for this bloke), plus would a guy worth £320 million (richer than his dad) be arsed about someone taking his picture in a stupid hat? I know I wouldn’t. The family are based in the South, but they do own 27 flats in the Greater Manchester area...

Sunday, 5 December 2021

Who is the Mystery Shark Hat Guy?

A quiet week due to illness, meaning I missed a meal out last night. I’m back to pretty decent health now, and down to 83kg for the first time in a long time. Just in time for… work again tomorrow. Great.

Remember that follow-up piece to the Carnival post I wrote? The lad in the shark hat claiming his dad was a politician… well, I showed it to Popbitch. They mentioned it in their weekly email. Result! But who is it? There is one name being touted, but… I have a tenuous connection to said dad so I’d rather not say.

Also, I got these bad boys published:

I found this:

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A post shared by Matt Tuckey 🇬🇧 (@matttuckey)

And my mum found these:

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Monday, 19 July 2021

Lockdown Reading: Take 10. Results

NEW. And big. Boris Johnson says ONLY DOUBLE JABBED to be allowed to go to nightclubs by end of September. Enforced by law. Negative test not enough.
— Ben Riley-Smith (@benrileysmith) July 19, 2021

Well, it’s 19^th July and England’s COVID restrictions have been removed. COVID cases, hospitalisations and deaths are all on the rise… So Johnson has arbitrarily gone ahead with unlocking the country. Not even 36 million people, out of 66 million in the country, are fully vaccinated. The clubs opened at 00:01 last night, and a flood of 18-25-year-olds- many of whom would be still waiting for their first or second dose of a vaccine- pumped through their doors. However- newsflash- this lax law has, at the time of writing, been reversed, and proof of vaccination is mandatory.

This is a necessity. Yes, all the vulnerable groups are vaccinated. But the vaccines are only 93% effective, so out of a thousand people, if you introduce someone who is COVID positive, a handful of vaccinated people will still contract the virus. Some will still get sick. This is the science. The science- virology, if we’re being specific- that Johnson and his cronies have repeatedly ignored, which has led to 128 thousand deaths.

Either way, back in May I said I would update with the books I’ve read. They were:

Everything I read in this lockdown @chuckpalahniuk @Schwarzenegger staying in wasn't so bad! pic.twitter.com/mbRcoEr7gA
— Matt Tuckey 🇬🇧 (@matthewtuckey) July 19, 2021

Adjustment Day

Chuck Palahniuk predicts (kinda) the 6^th January attacks on Capitol Hill with his 2018 novel, Adjustment Day. The US edges towards a huge war, and the country’s college-age kids look likely to be sent off to die. This backfires on lawmakers when the youth retaliate. They’ve been updating a website, a new, darker form of Social Media, allowing people to vote on who gets killed- a kind of reverse popularity test, reminiscent of the trending topics on Black Mirror’s Hated in the Nation (in which a swarm of mechanised bees attacked whomever trended with a certain hashtag).

The teens strike a pre-emptive blow, murdering thousands of political figures and dumping their bodies in vast pits.

The attack- known as Adjustment Day- marks a new, confusing era that Palahniuk himself hasn’t properly thought out. Half way into the book the idea seems exhausted, but the kids- now living in a dystopian Lord-of-the-Flies scenario- start to turn on each other as the States of America become disunited and society becomes segregated into ethnicity and sexual orientation (which knowingly contradicts itself: people normally fit more than one demographic).

NATO is notably- and inexplicably- absent as the new, disunited states fall into disrepair and key characters off each other for breaking rules they help to create (I wonder if Dominic Cummings has read any Palahniuk?), culminating in a weirdly abrupt ending. Entertaining, but confusing.

The Invention of Sound

Movie sound recordist Mitzi Ives has a secret. She’s a go-to girl for movie producers everywhere who need horror sounds. What no-one knows, though, is that those screams are the sounds of real, innocent victims, an obsession she inherited from her murderous father. Meanwhile, Foster Gates, private detective, is searching for his lost daughter. He’s about to stumble headlong into Mitzi’s dark world.

Chuck Palahniuk’s latest book is a short, fast-paced, twisty yarn, leading us through the world of horror movies and the sound industry- shady enough, without one of their key recordists (a weirdly analogue-recording one) being a serial killer.

After a few books perhaps hitting bum notes (Adjustment Day being one of them), The Invention of Sound is likely to strike a chord with his fans.

Tell-All

Chuck Palahniuk’s 11^th Novel, released in 2010, was the missing piece in my Palahniuk bookshelf. Tell-all, seemingly set in the roaring forties in Hollywood, follows Hazie Coogan, Personal Assistant to Katherine ‘Miss Kathie’ Kenton, a bulimic, man-eating Elizabeth Taylor-type movie star. As PA, Coogan’s main role seems to be to bat off the advances of various would-be suitors. She’s basically a golden-age cock-block. When charmer Webster Carlton shows up with a weirdly prophetic tell-all memoir, Coogan has to save Kenton from heartbreak- and death.

This, Palahniuk’s shortest novel, is also his most confusing. There are a lot of 40s-era movie references that even I don’t know, and I was a big-time movie nut in my teens. Some I think were B-rate movie stars, some fictional names. Similarly confusing is the plot- it isn’t always clear what’s actually happening and what’s just being retold from the pages of Carlton’s memoirs (which Carlton keeps rewriting). Short, dense and vague. A low point in Palahniuk’s bibliography, but don’t let that put you off his work.

Consider This: Moments in my Writing Life After Which Everything was Different

Last year, Chuck Palahniuk finally gave in and, after his peers and fans repeatedly asked him to, created a guide to writing. Consider This is part autobiography, part advice book. Drawing on nearly 60 years of experience, the Fight Club author put together his life learnings from years in the publishing industry, and his life before this.

Way back in 2013 I met Palahniuk at the signing for Doomed. I asked him about the relevance of a Journalism degree (one of which the author has from way back). He responded with a series of cautionary tales that he’d heard from other people- in workplaces, at dinners, etc. He couldn’t have retold these stories, he explained, without that journalism training. Many of these fables- the blood-soaked veterinary graduation, the mid-meal cancer diagnosis, and more- they’re retold in this book. At the time, my sketchy Teeline abilities- not as refine as they are now- couldn’t quite get all the details down, but I managed pretty well, it seems.

Embedded in and around the stories are golden nuggets of writing advice, the dos and don’ts of storytelling, and of being in a position to get the inspiration for those stories: the observation, the mind-tricks. If you’re going to take advice from any living writer, make it Palahniuk. A fascinating read.

I am now, 21 years after first reading Fight Club, up to date with Palahniuk’s books for the first time. The pandemic was good for something…

The New Encyclopedia of Modern Bodybuilding

If Arnold Schwarzenegger hadn’t written this, who would have done? Who better than the Austrian who came to The States aged 21 and won Mr Olympia 7 times?

A thorough, detailed guide to everything bodybuilding-related, The New Encyclopedia of Modern Bodybuilding is the most informative book on the subject I’ve ever come across. It’s a heavy, impressive-looking book, although the excess of white space makes it look more generous than it is. Every element of bodybuilding is covered: from choosing a gym through to keeping your head in a bodybuilding contest, and the journey in between.

I had a few issues with the book. I’d have put the section on nutrition right at the start. What you put in your stomach ultimately affects every other aspect of bodybuilding, and is arguably the most important. It’s also the first part of the process of improving health, something every bodybuilder aims to do. I would also have added a short section on getting proper sleep, without which no fitness regimen will have the desired effect.

Nitpicking aside, whether you want to compete professionally or mix in some weight training to help with a sport, or just improve general fitness, this book will advise you on how to do it.

To wrap up… I finished this last book today. I can see there being another lockdown reading project when the rules are reversed again, when it transpires that the majority of COVID spreaders were unvaccinated, and they’ve passed it on to vaccinated people, a small handful of whom will still get sick (although not as many in previous waves) and batshit anti-vaxxers will spout off as if this is their proof that ‘vaccines don’t work,’ although, as mentioned, scientists have said from the start that the vaccines wouldn’t be foolproof. Depressingly predictable.

What about the gym? Under a month ago I mentioned I was aiming to get down to 80kg. The gym has been open throughout this portion of the pandemic, and I’ve tapped away at personal bests. Bicep chinups- hands together, palms facing face- went from 10 to 12. Quad extension went from 70kg to 80kg, the machine’s top weight. I’ve started recording extra-wide chin-ups, using outward protruding handles so that my palms face each other, about a metre’s width apart. This isolates I think the latissimus dorsi – the lats - just below the armpit, and makes for a particularly hard chin-up. I went from 3 to 9. Aside from that, I’ve made steady progress on things like running and dips, encroaching PBs but not quite beating them. Also, I was at 87.54kg, around the same weight I was at last month. Oh well.

Will there be a part 11? Will Johnson reverse and lock us down again? I genuinely don’t know. It wouldn’t surprise me. Why they haven’t just waited until the rollout is complete is beyond me. Whatever. Point is, I read some great books.