Category: Philosophy

  • IT’S POLITICS: The Madness of Brexit – Retrospective- 2026/01/25

    IT’S POLITICS: The Madness of Brexit – Retrospective- 2026/01/25

    MADMartyn Jones

    Carmarthen, Wales – 31st July 2017 

    Many Brexiteers take a simplistic, restricted and shallow view of how the UK will leave the European Union.

    It’s to be expected.

    Some people are both wilfully ignorant and certain of their beliefs, even though their beliefs are no better than reactionary and rationalised prejudice, socialised absurdity and tidy-minded incongruence.

    It’s to be expected. (more…)

    MADMartyn Jones

    Carmarthen, Wales – 31st July 2017 

    Many Brexiteers take a simplistic, restricted and shallow view of how the UK will leave the European Union.

    It’s to be expected.

    Some people are both wilfully ignorant and certain of their beliefs, even though their beliefs are no better than reactionary and rationalised prejudice, socialised absurdity and tidy-minded incongruence.

    It’s to be expected. (more…)

  • Fixing racism in Labour and in England

    Fixing racism in Labour and in England

    Racism (and anti-Semitism) in the UK

    Martyn Richard Jones

    Brussels, 12th July 2019

    To begin at the beginning

    Britain’s Labour Party has been besieged by a continuous barrage of accusations alleging that the party is anti-Semitic; that it is institutionally racist and that its leader is somehow turning a blind eye to it.

    This is a very serious and weighty allegation, with potentially devastating implications.

    So, what does this deluge of accusations of anti-Semitism in the Labour Party tell us about racism in Britain and in British politics?

    (more…)
  • IT’S POLITICS: Why Labour Must Reject Brexit: Six Key Electoral Demographics

    IT’S POLITICS: Why Labour Must Reject Brexit: Six Key Electoral Demographics

    003Martyn Martyn Richard Jones

    Bruxelles 27th May 2019

    My post-EU election advice to the UK Labour Party leadership

    As I commented to Keir Starmer today “Labour are making a fundamental mistake and it ain’t working, Keir”.

    Labour’s approach to Brexit is completely the wrong strategy and it’s doing nobody (apart from Nigel Farage) any favours. No Brexit will benefit the immense majority of the country, we know that, and we know that the EU is not going to cut a better deal for anyone, regardless of their political flavour, because that’s just the way it is.

    Like it or loath it, but, Theresa May probably struck the best Brexit deal that the UK can aspire to, and it was roundly rejected, for various reasons, by Westminster. No, the best Brexit deal is no Brexit at all.

    (more…)

  • Consider this: Huawei, Google and the USA

    Consider this: Huawei, Google and the USA

    Huawei2Martyn Richard Jones

    Bruxelles 20th May 2019

    Listen up!

    I have just read Simon Jenkin’s article, published in The Guardian, on the current barney between the USA and China – “Google’s Huawei ban is good news: tech giants shouldn’t always get their way.

    This is one of those rare occasions when I don’t agree entirely with what Simon has to say, but, the piece still carries a lot of good sense and finely tuned criticism.

    For me, this quarrel isn’t fundamentally about security or reining in big-tech. This is essentially about trade wars, base protection, maintaining power and imposing influence. In short, it’s about hubris, intimidation and violence on the global political stage.

    But, at the bottom of all of this is the Trump administration’s Homeric ignorance and epic ability to simply fanny-around.

    (more…)

  • Consider this: Clueless in IT! Can‘t listen. Aren‘t learning. Won‘t win.

    Consider this: Clueless in IT! Can‘t listen. Aren‘t learning. Won‘t win.

    OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERA
    Aranjuez, Spain

    Martyn Richard Jones

    Bruxelles 19th May 2019

    Listen well

    I am a big fan of listening well and in continually improving listening skills. Yes, there are times when we can over-listen but this is also linked with skills of diplomacy and politics. How we listen should inform us a lot about what we and others really are.

    So, whilst I am a big advocate of listening well I see that the world of business, and especially the sub-world of IT, is plagued with vain, impulsive and badly informed vote-takers who stubbornly resist the need to listen well and who will attempt to deftly fill the whole of the available time bashing their gums in communicating what are to all intents and purposes vacuous inanities and long litanies of meaningless clichés, full of terms that they either abuse or misunderstand; or even a bit of both.

    And, as anyone who has worked with IT will know, I am not making this up. We used to call this charlatanry now we simply call it consulting. It still isn’t turning a pig’s ear into a silk purse, no matter how much people insist. But, there it is, in all its magnificent mediocrity.

    Some people tell me it’s because IT attracts people with autism and Asperger’s syndrome; whatever that is.

    I tend to put this refusal to listen down to other things; my money is firmly on arrogance and ignorance.

    But, they just don’t get it, do they? (more…)

  • IT’S POLITICS: Brexit: Lose Control, Get Handed Your Arse

    IT’S POLITICS: Brexit: Lose Control, Get Handed Your Arse

    Picture1Martyn Jones

    Bonn, Nordrhein-Westfalen, Germany – 6th August 2017

    They told us that by voting for Brexit we would take back control.

    They told us that Brexit would mean control over sovereignty and immigration. Which would mean total control over the economy, culture, society, law making, international relationships and trade.

    They told us that voting for Brexit was the only patriotic option on offer.

    This is what the backers of Brexit, through media, political and celebrity bullshitting agents, and a plethora of Brexit’s useful idiots, were telling us we would get once we were out of the EU. (more…)

  • IT’S POLITICS: The Madness of Brexit

    IT’S POLITICS: The Madness of Brexit

    MADMartyn Jones

    Carmarthen, Wales – 31st July 2017 

    Many Brexiteers take a simplistic, restricted and shallow view of how the UK will leave the European Union.

    It’s to be expected.

    Some people are both wilfully ignorant and certain of their beliefs, even though their beliefs are no better than reactionary and rationalised prejudice, socialised absurdity and tidy-minded incongruence.

    It’s to be expected. (more…)

  • IT’S POLITICS: Brexit is Bullshit

    IT’S POLITICS: Brexit is Bullshit

    Peppa-Pig-eOneMartyn Jones

    Carmarthen, Wales 20th July 2017

    Let’s face it.

    Brexit is bullshit.

    Maybe it’s worse than bullshit.

    Either way, one thing is for sure. Brexit is the most revealing, significant and catastrophic episode of irrational, self-harming and bloody-minded lunacy in the entire history of the British Isles.

    But, why did it turn out that way?

    What drove so many people to vote for far greater risk, uncertainty about the future and the rejection of the stability, presence and influence that we have within the EU?

    (more…)

  • Can Ruth save the Tories?

    Can Ruth save the Tories?

    Ruth2

    Martyn Richard Jones

    Carmarthen, Wales 23rd July 2017

    The UK government is in a mess. Theresa May’s team lacks coherence, cohesiveness and credibility. It’s driven by instinct and its instincts are not clever. It’s a team that has taken on far more than it can adequately manage. It has bluffed and blustered its way to the forefront of the political beauty stakes only to be confronted with significant political, economic and social challenges for which it has no rational or reasonable strategies, policies or plans.

    The Tory cabinet is about as effective, credible and desirable as an unruly gang of drunken revellers on an extended stag-do in Benidorm.

    (more…)