Tito – coca cola socialism

The funeral 8th May 1980. The funeral of Josip Broz Tito, President of Yugoslavia. From Moscow came Leonid Brezhnev, General Secretary of the Soviet Union; from Washington, Vice-President Walter Mondale and the President’s mother, Lillian Carter. Margaret Thatcher came for Britain, Helmut Schmidt for West Germany, and from the other Germany came Erich Honecker. President … Read more

Felixstowe: Brexit Made Exporting Harder — Then We Built a System We Won’t Use

Brexit has damaged the UK’s exports. I know this from first-hand experience. Before the vote, we exported to Ireland, Spain and Japan. After the vote, nothing. Japan might seem an odd market to lose. But like many small exporters, we sold through a distributor that bundled together drinks products for Asian markets. Mixing UK and … Read more

How Amazon Became the Ultimate Example of Enshittification

Enshittification “Enshittification” is Cory Doctorow’s brutal but accurate term for the slow rot that takes hold of online platforms. The pattern is always the same: Each stage involves luring people in, monetising them, and once the monopoly is secure, squeezing every last drop out of the system. Amazon is the textbook case. What Amazon looks … Read more