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1 week ago | 
yorkshirebylines.co.uk | Andy Brown
Now that the dust has settled on the local election results, it feels like a good time to attempt a realistic assessment of their meaning. There are plenty of ways of looking at these results that don’t look quite so bad as we first thought, but here’s the spoiler alert – those ways all involve an element of self-delusion. That is a dangerous pastime right now.
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3 weeks ago | 
yorkshirebylines.co.uk | Andy Brown
We live at a time of great hypocrisy. Accusations of a failure to protect free speech are coming out of America thick and fast. Accompanied by some very determined efforts to suppress that very freedom. Outlets for independent thought, where it is possible to question the wisdom of Donald Trump and explore objective scientific evidence, are being closed down with a vengeance. And I do mean vengeance.
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1 month ago | 
yorkshirebylines.co.uk | Andy Brown
For over half a century, right-wing economic theorists and the politicians who enthusiastically implemented their ideas have been giving us all lectures about the benefits of free markets. Competition, we were told, was good because the hidden hand of the market would direct resources to where they could be most efficiently deployed.
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1 month ago | 
yorkshirebylines.co.uk | Andy Brown
All the signs are that new UK government is going to make the most important decision of its term in office in the coming weeks. Unfortunately, it looks very much as if it will make the wrong one. Now that Donald Trump’s trade policies have escalated into a full-scale international trade war, Britain has to decide how best to respond. The remnants of British industry were hit hard when Trump announced that he would impose hefty new tariffs on steel.
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1 month ago | 
yorkshirebylines.co.uk | Andy Brown
Canada is an amazing country. Geographically it bears a strong resemblance to Siberia, having a huge area of boreal forest that gives way first to tundra, then to expanses of frozen wilderness that get tougher the further north you go. Both places have a wealth of natural resources and they share a pioneer culture that comes with a heritage of problematic relationships with the original occupants of the land.
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1 month ago | 
louderthanwar.com | Andy Brown |Andy Brown
Beans On Toast | William CrightonBrudenell Social Club, Leeds20th March 2025Andy Brown heads to the Brudenell Social Club for a life-affirming set by folk singer-songwriter, Beans On Toast. He reviews the night for Louder Than War. Folk music is there to reflect the times so Jay McAllister, aka Beans On Toast, must have had his hands full these last few years. He’s actually managed to release an album every year since 2009 which is no mean feat.
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1 month ago | 
yorkshirebylines.co.uk | Andy Brown
It is now becoming increasingly clear that the determinant of the success or failure of Donald Trump’s second presidency is the impact of his decisions upon the economy. During his election campaign he repeated loudly and with great frequency that he thought tariff was the most beautiful word in existence. The part of the American public that idolises him is therefore expecting great things from the introduction of hefty tariffs on imports. Few serious economists are.
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2 months ago | 
yorkshirebylines.co.uk | Andy Brown
You have to hand it to George Orwell. He knew a thing or two about how the world operates, and the difference between how dictators and oligarchs pressure people to behave and the way that decent folks like to conduct their lives. In the classic book 1984, the job of the main protagonist is to change reality.
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2 months ago | 
yorkshirebylines.co.uk | Andy Brown
Fascism resembles heroin. At first those tempted by the drug seem to enjoy the experience. Then the horrible reality begins to hit and the whole experience gets exposed for what it is: a shallow and squalid indulgence that ends very badly. Watched with the benefit of hindsight, the Nuremberg rallies carry the chill of great evil. I suspect the participants thoroughly enjoyed themselves at the time.
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Feb 13, 2025 | 
yorkshirebylines.co.uk | Andy Brown
Twenty-two billion quid is a lot of money. That’s how much the government is proposing to invest in carbon capture technology. Which sounds like a remarkably determined response to the challenge of combatting climate change. Yet it is encountering an equally remarkable lack of enthusiasm from many environmental campaigners. There are two very good reasons for the cynicism.
