The House on the Embankment
Seventy years after his death, the rehabilitation of Joseph Stalin was unexpected. Yet however you analyse it, when a government spends decades glorifying a genocidal dictator and only later admits their crimes, we shouldn’t be surprised by a comeback.(...)
Nigel Farage’s Legacy
Brexit will turn three on the last day of January, over six years since the 2016 referendum kickstarted Britain’s race to the bottom.(...)
Everywhere But There, by Joel Schalit
Battleground editor Joel Schalit’s new album Everywhere But There forcefully demonstrates the need for a new kind of political reporting, one which presents the world as it actually is instead of distorting it in the pursuit of profit.(...)
Jeanne Dielman, Directed by Chantal Akerman
When Sight and Sound’s once-a-decade poll about the greatest films of all time was published two weeks ago, people were shocked to see Chantal Akerman’s Jeanne Dielman, 23 quai de Commerce, 1080 Bruxelles at the top.(...)
The Human Zoo Show
It was an act of contrition. In June, the King of Belgium returned a tooth to the Congo.(...)
The Battleground’s Fall Book List
Blame it on the algorithms. The bad press bears itself out. For progressive journalists seeking to reach bigger audiences, according to reports, the world’s biggest social media - Facebook and Twitter - prefer the right.(...)
Fire, by The Bug
Fire, the new album by The Bug, hits hard, even harder than its rather distant predecessors, London Zoo (2008) and Pressure (2003). But it also hits soft. (...)
This is What Europe Sounds Like, by Joel Schalit
This is What Europe Sounds Like makes for uneasy listening. Not because of strident guitars, disturbing lyrics, or aggressive atonality, but because it refuses to meet the expectation of music at all.(...)
The Prime Minister’s Newspaper
Most British premiers have a publication that exemplifies their agenda. Thatcher had The Spectator, Blair had Prospect, but Boris Johnson has the newspaper he used to write for: The Daily Telegraph.(...)
No Escape From War