One Step Out of Time: Even in its ‘Glory Years’, the UK Never Really Understood Eurovision

The Brits Need To Acknowledge an Awkward Truth if They’re Ever to Truly Compete in the Song Contest Again This article was originally written on May 24th, 2021 “It’s a farce,” barked my mother, with an unmistakable rasp in her voice. “Me and your father watched the points being given in bed, and then switched… Read More

Power Play: Big-Name Players the Key to Halting the Slide Towards a ‘European Super League’

I hoped something would have changed by the time I woke up on Monday morning. I’m not suggesting I lifted my head off the pillow imagining the whole thing had “been a dream” or anything quite so clichéd, but – perhaps stupidly – I did hope my bleary eyes would focus on a statement from… Read More

A Game of Two Halves: A Spoiler Filled Review of The Last of Us Part II

You are the star of your own life story, and everybody else – however important they may be – is just an NPC. They’re the ‘special guest star’, or a fleeting cameo that serves only to make an impact of some degree on your day. Their motivations, their desires, even their feelings are alien to… Read More

The party you love has no chance of winning the General Election, and here’s why

Your vote is pointless. The party you’re rallying behind is doomed to fail. The election has already been decided, and not in your favour. Well, unless you’re a Tory, that is. Which, of course, is perfectly possible and reasonable; unlike the particularly spiteful campaign that has sneaked into Manchester Pride over the last few years,… Read More

Hitting the Headlines: It’s time to shake the ‘fake news’ tag

The ability for you, me, and the guy down the street to communicate with absolutely anybody else across the world was the big sales pitch the internet showed up to town with when I was growing up. Before “memes”, before social media, before even pornography took hold, the idea of talking to people they’d never… Read More

The Death of Reason: Why Twitter and Facebook are killing politics

I remember having a conversation with an ex many years ago about how our music tastes were starting to diverge. Having once listened to largely the same crop of artists, YouTube, we concluded, was the cause of our differing paths. At the time, the video network was just beginning to push recommendations based on your… Read More

Referendum Woes: How Labour and the Tories have conspired to throw the UK into the abyss

In just a couple of days, the UK will vote to leave the EU. That’s how things appear as I sit here typing now, ironically enough in a chain coffee shop staffed by baristas with accents of all kinds, European and otherwise. Polls are unreliable, but there’s a definite tone to the conversation I’m seeing… Read More

The Guardiola Game: Pep’s appointment says more about Man City than football’s elite realise

In some ways, the revelation that Pep Guardiola is to take over as manager of Manchester City in the coming summer is the most unsurprising news of the football season. As the club admitted in its press statement yesterday, City have been chasing the current Bayern Munich manager since 2012 and, arguably, this is the… Read More

From fist bumps to fisting: Can ‘Bro’ really blur the boundaries between gay and straight?

I’ve never been a fan of labels when it comes to sexuality. I’ve always said that, despite the fact being gay would never be one of the first things I mention about myself when I meet someone new, if asked to detail the lay of the land in my bedroom I identify as homosexual, purely… Read More