The Peasants’ Revolt, also called Wat Tyler’s Rebellion, in 1381 was the first great rebellion in English history. The cause was the imposition of the unpopular poll tax of 1380, which was a response to huge economic discontent. The participants included well-to-do artisans and villeins as well as the poor. The main grievance of the agricultural … More The peasants’ revolt: choosing the right pitchfork

These days, I very rarely drink in British bars. Monday’s state funeral of Queen Elizabeth II was the first time I had visited a British bar since the family drinks after an earlier funeral this year. I had delivered the eulogy at the local crematorium – as a friend of the family – for a … More Four beers and a funeral

In the summer weeks I have mostly avoided the wider news and instead watched only the Tour de France in July and the Vuelta a España in late August and September. Now all the cycling is over, it is time for a gradual return to maintenance jobs around the estate. The donkey terraces, the trees … More Thank you for your servitude

I have mostly let Rubí donkey look after the blog in recent months, with her Rubí Tuesday posts. Her asinine sanity makes more pleasant reading than anything I have to offer. It seems that the Eeyorish ‘gloomy place’ that Rubí inhabits is far less mentally destructive than the anger and pessimism of miserable humans these … More Survival requires asinine sanity

Politics is not for you. Politics is not for me either. Politics is for the rich now. Some of us tried hard to be team players. In the post-2016 period after the disastrous Brexit vote, I spent three years of my life organizing online and marching on the streets of London with millions of others, … More Now we are on our own, like Tour de France break-away riders.