Perhaps he just objects to paragraphs longer than a sentence.

You do have a very different style to Laurie though. It’s only personal preference and no criticism of her but I find your more considered approach a lot easier to digest. I struggle to get through her work.

Sorry, Sophie.

Just seen your comment. Am from working class background, not an aristo.

And I am certainly not a Keynesian, or a particular fan of Toynbee, or even an uncritical fan of Laurie

However, I ended up feeling sorry for Laurie Penny and agree largely with her colleague David Allen Green.

I know nothing about Occupy beyond media – from blogs like this to mainstream coverage.

The stuff that I have read wreaks of outrageous levels of self importance and issues more related to a self serving cult than a political movement.

That said, I am sure that I could find many things to agree about with those on the protests. The idea that this is something new or important is far more problematic.

Also as a former hack, I think it is entirely reasonable to write up conversations afterwards. Notepads disrupt observance and if you are doing a brushstrokes piece then it is OK.

Sounds to me like an honest error has been made and you are making a mountain out of it – especially as you were not named.

This blogpost is so turgid as to render it unreadable.

I wondered what the fuss was about regarding my NS colleague Laurie. I have now tried to read this post twice, and I do not have a clue what much of it means.

Whatever else you contend about Laurie, she certainly writes a lot better than you.

And there’s a third part? Dear god.

On the sex side, I think it was good that the occupation I was part of managed to stay mostly asexual (we had a “no heavy petting” rule writ large on the walls along with no alcohol/drugs, so Penny’s words ring true with myself). First, there was work to be done. Second, there was image. Third, there’s the inevitable cliquery that comes from intimacy – we couldn’t all be friends if half of us were sleeping with each other. Fourth – it shows that something has changed since 1969 – we’re not a sexual revolution mascerading (even to some of our proponents) as some egalitarian force for good.

Going back an article I think: the organised far left is the SWP, SP etc. As an anarchist, I reject any suggestion that I’m in this category, and in some senses anarchism transcends this stupid out-dated concept. People wondering “what the correct left-wing response” might be need to be given the elbow – these are the people who make up groups like the SWP, and they do our movement harm. Left-wing is a term imposed upon us by those who wish to band us with the authoritarians.

What the student movement has unwittingly done extremely well is to restore the possibility of change happening, at the expense of those who had privately given up hope. Or perhaps you reject the existence of hope or the need for human emotion vs the markets?

Your points on feminism are actually the only bit of this I agree with in any way.

It’s always a pleasure to read your blog. And I agree with most of it. I think the UCL occupation has been far too focused on the press, to the detriment of other working groups and in a way that has elevated certain people on an individual, rather than a collective level. What is great about the RFS’s media policy is that it prevents “getting in the news” from disrupting the project. There are a lot of activists out there who would like to organize and get shit done without a camera in their face.

B