Disposable Everything

Author: Gareth Leaman

  • Notes on the Caerphilly by-election

    Notes on the Caerphilly by-election

    —

    by

    Gareth Leaman

    I’ve written a report for Novara Media on this week’s Senedd by-election in Caerphilly. You can read it here: In the run-up to next May’s Senedd election I’m hoping to write more on the topics touched upon in the article, particularly the rise of Reform UK. You can subscribe here for future updates.

  • They’re going to come for the left

    They’re going to come for the left

    —

    by

    Gareth Leaman

    We know, obviously, that the new British right defines itself not by what it stands for, but by what it opposes. Reform UK, along with the incipiently fascist street movements they’ve provided political cover for, rarely extend their campaigning beyond the marginalisation of certain demographics: most obviously migrants (and by implication all ethnic minorities), frequently…

  • The new left party

    The new left party

    —

    by

    Gareth Leaman

    If the British⁠ left is to organise itself electorally, then clearly a new political party is needed. After the failures of 2015–19, it was always going to come to this.

  • Adam Curtis, ‘Shifty’

    Adam Curtis, ‘Shifty’

    —

    by

    Gareth Leaman

    Shifty is, perhaps, the ultimate Adam Curtis film. Eschewing the expansive globetrotting that defines much of his work, it instead dives deep into all he’s ever tried to say about the British state. The result is a grand temporal sweep of UK politics, from the rise of Thatcherism to the present day, in an attempt…

  • If the US attacks Iran, the UK attacks Iran

    If the US attacks Iran, the UK attacks Iran

    —

    by

    Gareth Leaman

    With all current circumstances taken into account, it is very likely that, in the event that the United States attacks Iran in the coming weeks, it will do so with the complicity of the British government.

  • On Twitter and Bluesky

    On Twitter and Bluesky

    —

    by

    Gareth Leaman

    The liberal exodus from Twitter/X, which has seen millions of people ditching the platform and migrating to Bluesky, has been met with various forms of derision from those who remain behind. Conservatives have mocked their fleeing adversaries for taking their discursive ball and going home, for being unable to stand the heat of battle and…

  • The red Welsh way

    The red Welsh way

    —

    by

    Gareth Leaman

    This isn’t a full essay, but the phrase ‘the red Welsh way’, introduced by Eluned Morgan earlier this month, is too annoying to ignore. A clunkier version of Welsh Labour’s ‘clear red water’, the party surely hopes it’ll serve a similar rhetorical purpose, at a similar political juncture. Keir Starmer is proving to be exactly…

  • For all mankind?

    For all mankind?

    —

    by

    Gareth Leaman

    It’s one of the most nauseating spectacles you’ll ever witness. Lauren Sanchez (net worth $30 million) exits a space capsule owned by her union-busting fiancé (net worth $206.7 billion) and proclaims that ‘we’re all in this together…we’re all connected’, the preceding eleven minutes apparently teaching her what a lifetime of matrimonial wealth will not. How…

  • Vibe is sentient capital

    Vibe is sentient capital

    —

    by

    Gareth Leaman

    Everyone loves talking about ‘vibe’. Everything new that happens in life – be it political, cultural, personal – can apparently be attributed to ‘vibes’. If change is afoot, we are witnessing a ‘vibe shift’. If something undesirable is happening, it’s because ‘the vibes are off’. And so on… Interpretation of ‘vibes’ is usually deployed either…

  • Liberals have nothing left

    Liberals have nothing left

    —

    by

    Gareth Leaman

    The result of the US presidential election has further exposed the extent to which establishment liberalism is collapsing in the face of the insurgent ‘new right’. If we can identify an underlying reason for this ongoing displacement, it lies in contrasting abilities to conceptualise the relations between capital, ‘capitalist’ and labour, and how these are…