Comment & Opinion
Comment and Opinion: The Ross/Brand affair Print E-mail
By Socialist Appeal readers   
Wednesday, 05 November 2008

ross-brand.jpgWe all agree it’s a storm in a teacup. But it’s been all over the papers. People are talking about it. What are Marxists to make of the Jonathan Ross/Russell Brand affair? After all there are genuine issues in here. It’s about capitalism and the media.

How do they get people in the media limelight to act like performing seals? Was the protest genuine? How far can they manufacture a mood of outrage? How can we defend the BBC when they lob £6m of licence-payers’ money at Ross? He boasts that, at that salary, he’s “worth 1,000 BBC journalists.”

Here are two points of view. Why not write in and have your say?
 
Socialists and “Green” politics – Letter and Reply Print E-mail
By Phil Mitchinson   
Tuesday, 03 October 2006
Earlier this year we received a letter from a reader of Socialist Appeal who says we put too much importance on one factor that contributes to climate change, human-induced emissions of "greenhouse" gases. In his answer Phil Mitchinson looks at the broader aspects of pollution, climate change and so on and stresses the need for a radical, socialist transformation of society if we are even to begin to tackle these vital problems.