Oddworld: Abe's Oddysee (New 'n' Tasty) Review

I'm a little late in reviewing this with things being so busy for me. I guess it's about time that I finally posted this review and updated over the coming weeks over what's been happening. Thanks for reading everyone! I'll write y'all again soon!

Last months's release of the classic PS1 title remake has received resounding praise from nostalgic critics, with the Metro naming it one of the "best remakes of all time." A game that captured the hearts and minds of gamers everywhere, shattering all age and gender markets with great aplomb. It has since became an icon of the 5th Generation, rivalling equally iconic games from long-established franchises like the mighty Final Fantasy VII, challenging convention in what was a paradigm-shifting year one could say for gaming, bringing us GTA, Gran Turismo, Riven, Fallout and Mario Kart 64.  The nostalgic seem to love its redefinition and similarity to the old, but what about this nostalgia-seeker?

I downloaded my copy of Abe on day release as soon as I could and -initiating the PS4 dashboard- leapt into the opening cutscene immediately with silent anticipation. When I was greeted by Abe's "smiling mug" -as the original manual referred to him on first sight- I was immediately transported back into 1999 when I first played the game. The 1997 title remains one of my favourite all-time games, a game that -for me- is not only on my top 10 game list, but also on my list of favoured general media products, including books, films, music, pretty much anything. What we're talking about here is either the revisitation, or annihilation, of my childhood. So let's hope Oddworld Inhabitants and Just Add Water have got it right!

The first thing you'll notice is that the difficulty has been changed. Years ago through the mists of time, you'd scramble around Rupture Farms with only one difficulty: You get shot, you die. Now there's three difficulties, Easy, Medium and Hard. The former gives you "high health" whereas the latter gives you the old get-hit-get-killed style of play, for those who've "completed the tale before." Now I'm going to be honest with you, I'm not a massive "hardcore" gamer by any imaginative stretch. Fair enough, when given a difficulty setting I won't go too easy (like when you play TES/Fallout on the bottom slider and every hostile NPC you cross feels like a level 1 no matter what level you are,) but at the same time I don't go overboard and try a game for the first time on a boldly-named "Nightmare" difficulty. But Abe? Nah, he's different, I thought. This is me bossing an old-school title I used to whip and get whipped by in equal measure hour-after-hour. Someone who, fair enough, didn't rescue every Mudokon but knew how to beat the game with a good ending. So long story short I hit the "Hard" selection and started to play but realised soon after that the good people at Oddworld Inhabitants put me, an Abe Veteran, to shame.

So what's changed? Well, aside from the truly beautiful graphics and a far more dynamic 2D environment, other things have become more fluent. This unfortunately includes enemy reaction times. Years ago, you''d stand in front of a Slig, he'd shout "freeze" (always the same phrase, for they weren't very imaginative back in the '90s) and then you'd have approximately 2-3 seconds to turn your ass 'round and run. Now, aside from having a greater choice of dialogue that's a little more realistic, they also react after no more than what seems like a second. And if you think that you've escaped the screen you're on, along with certain death, think again, because unlike the old version, the black transitions between screens have been done away with, so the border between two screens is infinitely more arbitrary and proportionally more annoying with every bullet that finds its skinny blue target.

A Blast from the Past: Abe for the 21st Century

Old School Abe: A Generation Defined

But for those of you wondering if anything has actually changed in the game itself, you won't be disappointed to hear that there have been new cutscenes added, as well as more Mudokons. From the original 99 we now have 300 to rescue, just like in Abe's Exoddus. And OI haven't been cruel too us either, because they've brought some other cool things over as well, including what appears to be less deadly drops from great heights, a quick save option and more Gamespeak options like the "All o' Ya!" exclamation to garner the attention of multiple Mudokons at any one time. But with all these additions I will warn you of one thing; those new Mudokons, they aren't all in the same places that you might think they're in if you've played this game before. Do you remember the first level? You tried going into the Zulag 2 door didn't you, realised it was locked and inaccessible until near the end of the game? Well I've got one little secret to share with you, so SPOILER ALERT: There's a new Mudokon hiding there, so don't leave the first level without him or "all workers on this shift will die!"  To quote the rewritten iconic advertisement towards the end of level 1.

Sensitive controls, along with easier death. More Mudokons to rescue, with more obstacles to avoid. More cutscenes but the same old characters: It's certainly Abe alright; redefined, matured for the original audience and wrapped up perfectly in a digitised bow, caked in the blood that oozes from extinct animals on the slaughter floors of the most dangerous meat-packing plant on Oddworld. If childhood games made a town, I can say I've revisited my home in all its glory, improved with age but the same house nonetheless. Go on, whether new or old, veteran player or still using your stabilisers, take a bite out of New 'n' Tasty, and savour it, you won't be disappointed!

Now for some comic relief!

Funny Deaths: The Original Game!

UKIP: A Political Polemic

I thought I should weigh in on a political opinion of mine as the European and Local Elections loom closer. This post is not to discuss my own personal preference, vis-a-vis party affiliation, but rather it is here to address a gripe I have with a certain party. The United kingdom Independence Party (UKIP) is a Eurosceptic party that has been in existence since 1993. In recent years it has seen a surge in support amongst disaffected voters, amid concerns surrounding EU powers, British sovereignty and immigration in particular. As a result of this, five years ago, it became the second-largest British party in the European Parliament, second only to the Conservatives. A great deal has changed of course since 2009, but still some issues remain and UKIP has pledged to solve them in methods -they reassure us- that are common-sense and bold; in other words, they are the new party of the common man, unafraid to question the establishment. Nigel Farage, UKIP leader and current face of 'anti-politics' in Britain, has managed to gain a reputation as a down-to-earth chap you could even have a drink in a pub with. This post seeks to challenge this conception and I hope that you find this piece informative.

The entire raison d'être of UKIP is the EU and its many treaties that have transformed the body over the years. David Cameron -many have suspected in fearful response- has 'promised' a referendum on EU membership to extinguish the fires of political rebellion emanating from within his own party. True, Britain hasn't seen a referendum of this kind since Harold Wilson's referendum of 1975. Since then, treaties such as Maastricht (1992) and Lisbon (2007) have enshrined new powers of the EU and its members, the number of which has also grown since the initiation of our membership in 1973. Maastricht, for example, unified the European Economic Community and rallied their support for a single currency (the Euro) in addition to unifying us politically, in order to allow cross-state foreign policy decision-making and inter-continental policing; the union was both economic and monetary. Lisbon later formed, what is now called officially the European Union, replacing the European Community and striving for greater cohesion, such as that stated in Article 3, Point 2: "...free movement of persons... ensured in conjunction with appropriate measures with respect to external border controls, asylum, immigration and the prevention and combating of crime." 

This of course may seem dubious to some, who -like UKIP- believe that we no longer have control of our borders, yet another article can be referred to (Article 4 Point 2,) which stresses "...respect for members states... national identities, inherent in their fundamental structures, political and constitutional, inclusive of regional and local self-government." The point further states that self-government on these key issues is their concern when matters of national security and law and order are at stake, which of course refutes the notion that we cannot extradite terrorists on the grounds of Human Right laws (as Richard Littlejohn believes.) 

But of course UKIP is not just the single-issue party of EU membership, but rather a party of multiple policies. Recently, a Green Councillor by the name of Michael Abberton posted a leaflet onto his Twitter account, using UKIP logos and colour schemes listing "10 Reasons to Vote for UKIP."

This list (which has seen an updated versions with sources since published,) was investigated by the Cambridgeshire Police on the grounds of it violating the Representation of the People Act, specifically the article concerning the slanderous use of falsehoods to deliberately affect the outcome of an upcoming election; the UKIP affiliate in question who filed the original police complaint is still unknown. But for a party who claim to be pro-freedom to go to the police to solve this issue without first consulting the man who posted it, speaks volumes of their hypocrisy. And without further delay, let's look into this supposed Green propaganda.

1) Scrapping Paid Maternity Leave

This policy was posted onto the affiliate website of a man named Amjad Bashir, the small and medium business spokesperson and was essentially advertised under a list of EU regulations, followed by the tagline "Government is the problem, not the solution." Interestingly enough, the website has since had this deleted for obvious PR reasons. But thankfully, there is a YT video (I definitely recommend that you watch him,) featuring a screenshot of this website between the 5th and 6th of May, and you can clearly see that this was Bashir's policy until very recently. The images are below:

As the Website Stands Today

Until Recently

When perusing the web, I've seen some people defending UKIP and Bashir by saying that it wasn't in their manifesto (because no party really has one at present for the 2015 general election,) or alternatively, I've been hearing the argument advanced that this man is only an affiliate/not representative of UKIP. Really? Well please tell me then, why would a SME spokesman for UKIP (the man who would probably be Business Secretary if they ever got into power,) put something like this onto his website that runs as a UKIP promoter if it is not "part of UKIP policy"? If Ed Davey as Energy Secretary put onto his personal, Lib-Dem blog, that he wanted to scrap climate change policy (another UKIP policy by the way,) then that becomes not just a preference of a man in charge, but official policy of the body he is representing i.e. the Lib-Dems and the Coalition government, making it Tory policy too at that point.     

2-4) Raising income Tax for the Poorest 88% of Britons; Scrapping Holiday Entitlements & Speeding Up Privatisation of The NHS

These policies were quoted on the website of UKIP Birmingham spokesperson Keith Rowe, but unfortunately for us, the policies hyperlink no longer takes you anywhere. This naturally presents some problems for us but, given that Amjad was quick to remove the contentious issues from his site, it seems only natural for Keith to do so as well. UKIP have spoken often of County Health Boards, designed to increase competition within the NHS because, and I quote from memory Paul Nuttal's Question Time appearance "I believe that competition improves service [within the NHS]." For those of you wishing to see a more concrete example of this, I was lucky enough to find a screenshot from Nuttal's UKIP website.

UKIP Pro-Privatisation Letter

Scrapping Holiday Entitlements feed into the policies surrounding the EU Directives on work conditions, which is EU policy under what is known as the EU Working Time Directive. This states that individuals employed on a full-time basis are entitled to "4 weeks of paid annual leave." Given that UKIP wish to get rid of this policy, it seems only logical that they will do so via resigning from the EU Employment Law, which is laid side-by-side with the current UK employment law by the London Chamber of Commerce, here.

5) Cancelling All Planned House-Building

This originated from the copy of the 2010 Election Manifesto, the only link to which I found here. Although there is debate as to whether or not this is still official policy, there are some points in this manifesto that ring true with this kind of policy, such as "encouraging demand, not just supply" or "incentivise the use of 800,000 empty homes," which does insinuate a policy driven by current housing stock rather than building more homes, which, according to the Joseph Rowntree Foundation is a priority if we wish to see people continuing to own rather than rent.

6) Abandoning All Action on Climate Change

This point is elucidated by a gentleman who no longer works for UKIP but used to be their official Science Advisor; a man called Lord Christopher Monckton. He claimed constantly that he was the SA to Margaret Thatcher, despite the fact that she didn't credit him with the position in her own autobiography. A YouTube user and climate scientist who runs the Potholer54 channel has rebuked many of Monckton's claims and misrepresentations of climate change and has even sent correspondence to him, so definitely check out those videos. The specific playlist linked has 5 videos titled "Monckton Bunkum Part 1-5." Essentially, Monckton constantly claimed that ice yield has reduced between -generally- a few years worth of time and has concluded from this microscopic datum that climate change is a myth. The Daily Mail (that bastion of integrity!) has made similar claims such as the infamous "Global Warming Stopped in 1997," based on a small MET Office update that said no such thing. If however you look into a longer graph -such as this one from the NCDC- it shows a very different trend indeed. Also, according to the National Snow & Ice Data Centre the ice yield for the years 1978-2010, showed a linear decrease in ice yield of 3.3% per decade. 

National Climatic Data Centre (a US Organisation)

National Snow & Ice Data Centre

7) Cancelling Regulation to Make Banks Safer

This is backed up thanks to Coughlan's earlier video to which I linked in point 1. The Independent published this "Open Letter to Alex Jones" from Farage himself, in which he attacks Gordon Brown for handing over regulations to "Canary Wharf" but wishes to remove more regulations -such as those imposed by the EU- on banking, which of course fits in rather well with their "free market solves all" mentality. Please note however that the only source for their deregulation claims as it stands is in the student-run, political-neutrality-claiming magazine: The Yorker.

8) Abolishing Your EU Human Rights

This is of course a long-standing UKIP policy, though here it could be argued that many of these principles in the EU Human Rights Act are already upheld in Common Law and Habeas Corpus. But considering what we already know about UKIP and their tendencies surrounding limiting worker freedoms, it does beg the question as to the motivation for abolishing this legislation. But the key point here is that -firstly- the European Court is not a body of the EU, but rather the Council of Europe and -secondly- the administration of these laws by the European Court in Strasbourg, is only possible once all other court options within the member state concerned have been exhausted. Often these cases are resolved in the UK, as seen our earlier example of terror suspect Abu Qatarda who was finally extradited to Jordan last year. His lengthy stay in this country however was perpetuated not thanks to the European Court, but rather a UK Court after having won his immigration appeal in the first place.

9) Making it Legal for a Man to Rape or Assault His Wife

The law only changed on marital rape in 1991 despite critiques as far back as the 19th century. Nevertheless, a UKIP backer recently said that "there is no such thing as marital rape," a comment that has obviously provoked outcry. This falls into line with a reported rebellion against the EU in 2006, on a motion titled "Combating Violence Against Women." Of the 14 MEPs who rebelled and voted against the movement, 8 were UKIP members.

10) Cutting Education Spending & Buying 3 Aircraft Carriers Instead

Now, this issue with UKIP can be traced back to their 2010 Manifesto, in which restoration processes for the military were on the table, including the specific purchase of light jets and aircraft carriers. The education policy is one advocating a return to the Grammar School system and the implementation of County Education Boards, akin to the ones that they wish to set up for the NHS; a franchised system, where charities and parent-run initiatives (such as current 'free schools' championed by Blair and continued by Gove,) would become the norm, alongside the perhaps more alarming "...not-for-profit and profit-making private companies..." This seems to suggest a similar libertarian approach to the schooling system and if indeed schools are franchised off to companies and charities, and combined with their low tax approach, it seems fairly logical that they will match the low taxes with a much lower spend, despite their desire to see increased military spending. This is followed by a policy of denationalising Further- and Higher-Education Institutions, instead replacing the loan/grant payment system with "Student Vouchers" and "Training Vouchers." These would be issued to everyone over the age of 18. The denationalised education establishments will be "...only accountable to their students" and "...run by charitable bodies."

And Finally . . . Number 11)

Phew! That took quite a while so if you've made it this far then I applaud you. But we aren't done yet, because there is a single point that I would like to address, a point reiterated continually by Farage that is just not true. The point is so crucial to the fear-mongering that they even went to the trouble of making a poster out of it:

Get Your Tin-Foil Hats on People, the Bureaucrats Are Coming!

Yes, that's right! Apparently 75% of our laws are made by the EU (and we all know the EU is a bunch of unelected, unrepresentative, crypto-fascist, do-gooding, PC-brigade, liberal-lefty, BBC wishy-washy bunch of commie wankers from Brussels right?) But sadly Farage has got it wrong again, because -firstly- to say that X amount of our laws are made the EU is a daft way to measure the impact as to our lives, because each individual law has a different impact than another might, which makes this so-called 'impact measurement' a fallacious one. But more importantly is the fact that the EU Parliament in which Farage sits (when he bothers to attend) is the body to which he is referring. Why else to we vote in European elections? To vote for our MEPs of course. According to the HoC Library (cited via FullFact) the claim of law % could be justified from anywhere between 15%-50%. This is because the laws are passed in different variations vis-a-vis EU/UK Parliament influence, the three categories being "Acts put in place by UK Parliament with EU Influence"; "Regulations Influenced by or Related to the EU" and finally "EU Regulations & Regulations Influenced by or Related to the EU." These different categories will of course contain different types/severities of laws, with the European Parliament voting for 70% of all laws passed (according to Vivianne Reding,) which is where UKIP distorted the claim, even after she said that she made a mistake in saying simply that the EU in general passes all these laws. Put simply, 70% of all laws passed within the EU are made by the elected MEPs of each member state. The other 30% are made by the European Council, made up by the Heads of State or Government of the member countries, meaning that David Cameron, as PM, is our current Council Representative. Of course this would challenge the idea of our Councillors etc. being unelected, but then again, Cameron wasn't really elected as PM was he, given the lack of a "Coalition" option on the ballot paper in 2010.

Thanks for reading! I'm glad that you took the time to read this and click on the links, and if you were thinking about voting for UKIP purely because of the EU, then I hope that this post made you think twice before voting for them. I could go into their more light-hearted controversies (Godfrey Bloom for example,) or perhaps show another weaselly excuse from Paul Nuttal about his attendance record being the worst; but I've realised that these things only serve to highlight the craziness, stupidity and -indeed- disingenuous nature of UKIP, and I didn't even have to resort to racism claims! And if you believe that this so-called "non-racist libertarian party" is a genuine one to vote for in order to show dissatisfaction with a body that, granted, isn't perfect, but far from unelected, then you might be better emigrating to Bongo-Bongo Land. But then again, you'd be an immigrant there wouldn't you?

Critical essay on Iain Duncan Smith

Right to be Forgotten: Opinion

I'm sure I don't need to remind everyone on the EU's ruling over the Google-Gonzalez case. Basically put for those of you still unaware, a Spanish man (Mario Costeja Gonzalez) discovered a search result on Google over a decade old, showing his old house up for auction in order to pay his debts. As I'm sure you can understand, such a result can pose certain financial difficulties in securing finance for the future. This, he argued in the European Court, is in violation of a 'right to be forgotten' (a right that has been sought by others before him up to two years ago) and Google should respond to his request that the unwanted search result be delisted (see the BBC Article.)

Surprisingly, the EU Court ruled in favour of the man and forced the California-based search giant to honour such requests in the future. Naturally this has caused an explosion of opinion and has rekindled the fires of mistrust over who collects our data. The ruling is unprecedented, with Wikipedia co-founder Jimmy Wales calling it one of the most "...wide-sweeping Internet censorship rulings I've ever seen..." He doesn't believe that it will stand for very long and already there have been protests against the EU Court's decision over the implications that such a ruling will have.

Against the Ruling:

The concern over this ruling by freedom-supporters is that "outdated and irrelevant results" is far too broad a ruling. The obvious implications over this is that near-enough anyone could go to Google and claim a critical article of them -however factual or valid- is "irrelevant" and "outdated." For example, last year I wrote a critical article about Secretary of State for Work & Pensions Iain Duncan Smith, accusing him of wasting money on politically-motivated projects based on bigoted opinions. Using this ruling, he could claim that my article is irrelevant and outdated and -by going to Google- could request that the article be removed from search indexes. You can see how this is ultimately insidious, because it is not active censorship in the sense of articles being taken off the web completely, but rather only gatekeepers of the web i.e. search engines who drive the traffic, will be prevented from doing that, which means that the article I wrote will be lost to the thickening forests of data increasingly being indexed by Google daily. This will lead to my article ultimately becoming lost on those who should be reading it and thus, our hypothetical goal for IDS will be complete: Censorship of criticism.

As a small aside, Google have since received 'forget me' requests, including those from a disgraced politician and a paedophile, which serve to highlight the original concerns.

In Favour of the Ruling:

Those who support the ruling are primarily those pushing for greater ability to manage their individual data. This will include those for example who don't wish to see a prospective employer pulling up their data as an excuse to fire them. YouGov have commissioned a poll since, which shows British public support for the ruling (50% Yes; 23% No.) However, it should be noted that the vast majority of these people do not see any personal need to pursue such requests (73% said there wasn't any irrelevant etc. data online, only 9% said yes.)

As I am sure most of you will know, companies these days will refer to Google for information about prospective employees, primarily trawling through social media profiles. We were given a lecture last year on this subject and below are two images from the presentation showing statistics for rejection/hiring, based on results from social media searches (Goldstraw, 2013):

Why they were Rejected

Why they were Hired

These charts show that a great many people are not even invited for an interview because their social media profiles are filled with images of irresponsible behaviour, posts of an unsavoury character or just lies lies and more lies. This ruling will be able to inhibit such processes but -as was pointed out in  the original BBC article, it will do little to stop a determined party from accessing such data anyway.

So What is My Opinion?

While I dislike those who try to censor the world around them and can't stand it when politicians/courts try to meddle with others' affairs, I find it hard to be truly outraged at this ruling, a little annoyed, but not much beyond that. The main reason for this is quite simply that, firstly, Google's mission statement is to make the world's information accessible and available to whomever wishes to see it, which of course can't be done with this ruling in place. Google's team of lawyers I'm sure will fight tooth and nail over this ruling and will ensure that it remains difficult for such requests to be passed. Why is this? Because -quite simply- Google make money through advertising services placed on websites, adjacent to content etc., which will be inhibited if their search indexes are shrunk by this ruling, due to so many de-listings of search results from disgruntled parties. This will mean -naturally- that as few requests as possible are acknowledged in order to retain large profitability.

Now providing that my prediction is correct, this could engender a two-tier system of requests. Imagine two different people who wish to see "irrelevant" and "outdated" content removed from the web: The first is an average man who posted something unsavoury on Facebook and wants it removed, while another is a powerful celebrity wishing to see a magazine article taken down because it defames their character (assume that the article is not untrue but rather shows the celeb in question in an unflattering light, but as a result of their own reckless behaviour nevertheless.) It is natural to assume that the celebrity -who may threaten with lawsuit- is more likely to have a request passed than the average person, of whom there will infinitely more and will deliver a larger loss for Google collectively. They are currently implementing a request button of some kind that will be ready in a matter of weeks. From here one can only imagine what the process will be like, however, the interesting thing is that Google can counter requests, but only if the person in question is a public figure, which suggests that anyone else is immune to scrutiny from Google.

Given all of these facts, I personally have to stand against this decision on Google, because I ultimately place the right to know higher than the right to be forgotten. People should have a right to know if it will concern them in some way e.g. an employer wishing to check a person's background, because this can be costly to businesses who may hire what turns out to be the wrong person. While I respect privacy, sometimes it is a price worth paying I believe for a universal standard that covers everyone regards to the data they choose to put online etc. We already have defamation and libel laws that adequately cover falsehoods posted by others after all, so why the extra ruling I ask? 

The Caves of Steel (Book Review)

The Caves of Steel (1954) is a robot detective novel by robotics pioneer Isaac Asimov, focusing on life in a womb-city New York, where everyone lives in populous underground "Cities," with staggering populations into the millions. Political turmoil ripples throughout the metropolis, especially since a man from Spacetown (an off-worlder) has been murdered. Elijah Baley, C-5 Detective, is hot on the case, and he's got a partner who's unconventional, to say the least.

The novel is quite short and spans eighteen chapters, following the exploits of Baley and R Daneel (that's Robot Daneel to us,) on their quest to unravel the conspiracy. A world where the population lives on yeast substitutes; a planet overpopulated to the tune of billions and a galaxy that has seen only limited colonisation provides a dark, rich overtone, filled with possibility and a surprisingly inventive cast of characters. The dystopia of population excess is brought forward with unrelenting skill on Asimov's part, the high technology levels contrasted by the problems it is unable to solve with an irritation that feeds into one's own mind, subconsciously. The problem is ultimately a sociological one, with the society effectively one comprised of luddites, who treat robots as second-class 'citizens' (called the Mediaevalist Movement.) Through this series of political problems, he creates a brilliantly told soft SF narrative, yet nevertheless, thanks to his scientific training, he still manages to offer explanations for the technologies, providing a realistic, hard SF finish to make his world completely believable and -considering that fact that the novel was written over 50 years ago- completely accurate, in the problems that we as a planet are facing currently (food shortage etc.)

The technology is still far future in some areas e.g. speed ramps to increase walking pace instead of a teleport system, whereas in others it is very much contemporary (book-films, for example, akin to tablet computers.) The scenes are often tense and unnerving, the dialogue unbroken and clean-flowing, like a rapid stream undulating with the freshness of spring. As Baley meets dead-end after dead-end we grow anxious as to his ability to solve the murder, and as more and more suspects begin to pile onto the list only to be struck off via a rock-solid alibi, Baley grows furious. The suspects all have their own quirks and traits that make each of them unique in some way or another, which is another strong point to Asimov's writing: His creating characters that share and embody his own personal knowledge of physics and robotics is captivating, to the extent that their explaining the workings of the positronic brain is as compelling as it would be if Asimov had told us himself. The Caves of Steel is a fantastically fast-paced detective thriller, of an almost disturbing prescience.

Thank you for reading this review, but before I leave it here, please also read iRobot because (for those of you who have seen the film,) the original book is very different, to the extent that Smith's character (Detective Spooner) is not even present. That's all for now so thanks again and next week I will most likely be reviewing the book Neuromancer by William Gibson (1984) because, having just started it, I've just realised that I can't put it down!

The Caves of Steel (1997 Pocketbook Edition)

Flatland (Book Review)

The 1884 novella by Edwin A. Abbot is a very popular tome used to demonstrate the laws of mathematics in schools, such is its enduring influence. It has also proven to be a rather pre-emptive piece of fiction, seeing a resurgence in popularity since the SF 'modern era', particularly when concerning more metaphysical forms of SF, such as Cyberpunk in the 1980s-90s.

Yes, a world in which a mundane Square is our protagonist, where class is derived from one's number of sides and where one's woman is but a flat line, perceived simply as a mere dot near invisible; Flatland is not just an account of the perceptibility of dimensionality, but a satire of the inequality that pervaded Victorian England. Featuring a visit from and to other dimensions, our Square learns the nature of the very sinews of reality, to the point at which the sky is the limit of his imagination . . . To the point of imagining a Fourth, Fifth or even a Sixth dimension, he refuses to be dissuaded in his upward geometric spiral, whatever the consequences. This piece of Math-Fi is a very entertaining -if a little primitive read- that is sure to bring new perspectives and make maths fun again. I only wish I'd read it when studying the subject at school!

The book is set in a two-dimensional world of Flatland, a place where ones social status is inferred from their shape, from a lowly Isosceles Triangle through to the Perfect Circle, whose 'sides' are so small as to be imperceptible. In the first half of the novella, the Square demonstrates the geography and compass of the world via wind direction and how their society operates in terms of the government, (controlled by circular priestly beings) and the histories of the land, (such as their brief use of colour and how the Bill allowing its use was quashed.) Flatland rings with a discord of Fascism in this respect, which feeds into the ideologies of the society, particularly in how it views women, which ultimately resonates eerily with the contemporary society during which the book was written. The first half essentially reads like an academic paper akin to the writing seen in H. G. Wells' The War of The Worlds, which is written in the style of a journalist.

The second half sees the book enter the more personal story of Square, who dreams of Lineland (a place of only one dimension,) frustrated by the inhabitant's incredulity at the notion of there being two dimensions to Space. In this sense, the novel is very philosophical and focuses on Solipsism (where one believes reality to exist only in the mind- meaning you are the universe) to a small extent: Within the Square's descriptions rings a visual description, very similar to the writings of philosopher Bertrand Russell, whose Problems of Philosophy I read a short while ago. The book is short overall at less than 85 pages, but contained within is an interesting read as educational as it is entertaining. I'd certainly recommend it to anyone who struggles with maths (particularly shape and space) and to anyone who has trouble with direction; it really helps you to visualise what life would be like without the third dimension and brings back fond memories, of when I played Paper Mario.

The only real problem is the writing style which -being over a century old- has naturally been surpassed several times over by the far more intimate writings of contemporary authors. There are also times when Flatland -excuse the pun- appears flat, especially within the dialogue where a heated argument might take place and someone -rather than go for the snappy 'fuck off'- will of course take us through a rather impotent-sounding squeal of "'...no more will I endure thy mockeries'... And saying these words I precipitated myself upon him." It doesn't really work does it? But it's forgivable given the time period and the maths is interesting (something I never thought I'd hear myself say!)

Overall, Flatland is an insightful read of great prescience and will be sure to entertain even the most resilient 'mathsophobe.' And for those of you SF fans into Cyberpunk, Flatland will be a highly-informative progenitor read, bringing the metaphysical into SF probably for the first time. I hope this review's been useful to you and before I go, please check below to see the link to the Dover-Thrift website (also on Amazon, where I bought the book) because their copy is unbelievably cheap and of a pretty high-quality as well, I might add!

Thanks for reading!

Dover-Thrift Edition

The Bridge (Book Review)

Iain Banks' third book, published in 1986 (a year before his first Culture novel,) is an interesting journey to say the least, but a vortex of pure artistry at best. A witty, clever read that is genuinely funny and enthrallingly original, fun yet serious and vibrant yet inert. The story follows that of an amnesiac man, trapped in a coma as he tries to discover the hidden secrets of the Bridge, a world that rests on a perpetual suspension bridge between two locations, the full purpose and meaning of which he is unaware of. The story could be described as a comedy, a thriller or a love story all at once, with each part of the novel broken into four chapters, preceded by a 'stage' of sorts such as "Metamorphosis" or "Metamorpheus," charting the journey of three protagonists who represent traditional Freudian psychological concepts, including the ID, Ego and Superego with astounding skill.

The story is not what I'd describe as complex necessarily, but rather grand and encapsulating, fitting together neatly with immense satisfaction. His prose is crisp and the overlap with his Culture novels is quite a treat for anyone who has read his SF stuff, (a barbarian with a knife-missile, now that's original!) with references made to literature and poetry which, to those familiar, also evokes a few laughs along the way. The novel is strange, exciting and the dialogue -as one comes to expect from Banks- is lifelike and seamless and it's from these aspects that I -as a budding writer- have learnt so much. His ability to take the first-person and make him unique and -simultaneously- completely disparate from Banks as the writer is top-notch, which is why I imagine Iain considered the novel to be his best, describing it as "...the intellectual of the family... the one that went to university and got a first."

The protagonists are very different people and their mannerisms reflect this, but some of the best narration comes from the character of the Barbarian, whose Glaswegian voice and dialect is rendered with perfect skill, enunciated with every purposeful mis-spelling and solidified by every utterance, underpinned by ID typicalities found within Psychoanalysis. These chapters chart an unforgettable journey of delightful oddities, brim-filled with humour and socio-political commentary that one can match with Banks' own rather easily, summing up his personal dislike of the Thatcher government of the 1980s, without it taking the centre stage but more to the point summing up anti-Tory sentiments in Scotland generally, both back in those days and still to extents, today.

An exuberant, fantastical ride of the greatest imagination, The Bridge is Banks' ode to the memory and what it feels like to simply forget, and whether or not the dream is in fact better than reality.

The Bridge: 2013 Edition

Winterfylleth -THE THRENODY OF TRIUMPH (Album Review)

The reason as to why I'm reviewing this album is -partly- because they're from Manchester, my home city (a fact of which I'm glad,) but also because they have a great deal to offer as far as Black Metal goes, the reasons for which I will detail below.

Winterfylleth (deriving from the Anglo-Saxon word for October or "the fall of winter") are a band formed in 2007 and have so far released a demo EP, three studio albums and are due to release an upcoming split EP with Ukrainian Black Metal outfit, Drudkh, later this month. The album release chronology is as follows: The Ghost of Heritage (2008); The Mercian Sphere (2010) and finally the album which I will review today The Threnody of Triumph (2012.) The lyrics typically focus on English heritage and history/folklore, with a heavy use of imagery, especially that concerning geographical landscapes upon which events took place e.g. battles and famous historical events. Threnody is no exception, a beautifully haunting collection of dark yet romantic tracks that keep us rolling forward at full speed, throughout the whole offering to the conclusion. Here's the track list:

1- A Thousand Winters

2- The Swart Raven

3- Aefterield-Freon (*best rendering of Norse graphemes that I can manage on a computer)

4- A Memorial

5- The Glorious Plain

6- A Soul Unbound

7- Void of Light

8- The Fate of Souls After Death

9- Home is Behind

10- The Threnody of Triumph

The Threnody of Triumph

 A Black Metal Masterpiece

The album stabs you with a solid opening on A Thousand Winters, and keeps the knife twisting throughout; a track filled with reverb and a very warm sound, unlike traditional Black Metal, is the first thing that makes the album so great because despite this, they still manage to achieve a very dark atmosphere, without relying on poor production. This idiosyncrasy works very well in their favour, the guitars building into a sonic wall through which the reverb-heavy vocals penetrate, the steam train of the drumbeat carrying the sound forward, advancing the album.

A Thousand Winters: A Breath-Taking Opener

(Lyric video)

The first track is undeniably a fantastic introduction, the lyrics focusing on the story of a ghost trying to reclaim what it lost, the title deriving from the final lyric "...that it were a thousand winters, to thy death-day." This kicks off the entire concept of the album, the songs contained within based around a lamenting of the dead and a progression to the afterlife. Olde and/or Middle English lyrics are also commonplace here, which gives many of the tracks a very Romantic Era ambience despite the dark atmosphere, and this paradox of sound and message is a very strong appeal once again because not only do the lyrics and themes clash with the sound quite often e.g. The Glorious Plain is almost Wordsworthian lyrically, yet dark and heavy sonically, but Winterfylleth's whole brand of BM is very different to other bands because the sound is very much warm as opposed to the bereft-of-reverb sound that is characteristic of most Black Metal, which I think is quite strange given that many of their tracks tend to be set around Autumn or Winter, the coldest seasons of the year.

The Glorious Plain: A Darkly Romantic Ode to a Steppe
(Lyric Video)

As their history suggests, Winterfylleth are a heritage/history-themed band, which is also reflected in their use of what looks like Olde English or early Norse in the third track's title, Aefterield-Freon, which means "mother-tree" I've heard though can't ratify, and is based on folklore. But this album goes beyond the mere mock-up in using clever titles because this track (as well as Home is Behind) is an instrumental English Folk track, not heavy or metallic in the slightest, utilising expertly-layered strings that creates such an epic sound, yet manages to convey such calm as if the eye of the winter storm has been reached, which is a nice break after hearing two heavy tracks clocking in at 7:36 and 7:48 respectively.

Aefterield-Freon: A Beautiful Folk Instrumental
(The Lyric Appears in the Songbook)

Without going into too many more tracks intimately, I will leave this album review by saying that I throughly enjoyed this album with over an hour of diverse music and fantastic musicianship on the part of all involved, with rolling drums, low guitars and above-all, innovative sounds marking a significant step in Winterfylleth's career. I highly recommend it to anyone with an open mind and anyone who likes ambient BM and/or historically-themed music with the instruments to match. If you  do give it a listen then I hope that you enjoy it as much as I did!

Thanks for reading.

Here Arrives 2014! So What's Your Resolution?

We made it! 2014 has arrived and -in my drunken stupor last night- I thought about what had happened to me over the last year:

In eight day's time for example, this blog will see a one-year anniversary. On August 15th this year (2014 if you're still adjusting!) my novel will see a three-year (WTF!?) existence ever since I wrote "PROLOGUE:" onto the screen of this very Macbook Pro in 2011, which I purchased in October of 2010. The last point's a little irrelevant, but I'm just thinking about what's happened since starting this blog, 78 posts since January 8th 2012, where I stated my intensions, current books being read, and what I'd already published. The first post looks pretty awful, littered with too large a text and uncertainties with disclosing identity, something that I am glad of becoming more relaxed about. But the end of the post does remind me of what I was reading at the time, and it is that which I believe demonstrates my growth as a reader (and therefore a writer) so with that being said, here is a list of all the books I read in 2013!

Reading Review (2013)

Consider Phlebas- Iain M. Banks
The Player of Games- Iain M. Banks
Use of Weapons- Iain M. Banks

Look to Windward- Iain M. Banks

A Clockwork Orange- Anthony Burgess

The Lost Fleet: Dauntless- Jack Campbell
The Lost Fleet: Fearless- Jack Campbell
The Lost Fleet: Courageous- Jack Campbell
The Lost Fleet: Valiant- Jack Campbell

The Lost Fleet: Relentless- Jack Campbell

Paradisio (The Divine Comedy III)- Dante

A Strange Eventful History: Democratic Socialism in Britain- Edmund Dell

The Man in the High Castle- Philip K. Dick

Manhattan in Reverse- Peter F. Hamilton

Starship Troopers- Robert A. Heinlein

Brave New World- Aldous Huxley

The Dark Tower Vol. V: Wolves of the Calla- Stephen King
The Dark Tower Vol. VI: Song of Susannah- Stephen King
The Dark Tower Vol. VII: The Dark Tower- Stephen King

The Wind Through the Keyhole (A Dark Tower Novel)- Stephen King

No Logo- Naomi Klein

Animal Farm- George Orwell

Nineteen Eighty-Four- George Orwell

Toxic Sludge is Good for You- John Stauber & Sheldon Rampton

The Time Machine- H. G. Wells

* Check out my reviews of the hyperlinked books!

It seems quite a lot really given that I had books to read for university as well, but because of that I can look back and say that I have definitely grown as a writer of primarily SF because of reading such titles. This year I plan on reading more SF and Dystopian novels both from the classic shelves like some more Wells or Orwell and certainly Ray Bradbury's Fahrenheit 451, which has been on my reading list for about 6-7 months now; other authors that I wish to read include Jason M. Hough's The Dire Earth Cycle, which looks like a promising Military SF series, in addition to more Iain Banks to compare his non-SF work to his Culture novels; The Wasp Factory and The Bridge look particularly promising to me, so hopefully I'll be as busy this year as I was last year! 

And that's about all for reading, but what about writing? This year I published many different things but just for your convenience, here is another list of what I think are the main landmarks in my writing pursuits as seen on this blog!

Offline Systems is the first part in a Military SF short story written in a similar vein to Jack Campbell's The Lost Fleet series, revolving around the destruction of a flagship and the desperate attempt by the commander to evacuate and send the crew below to an abandoned planet, planning on what to do about the enemy from the ground, his sights set on an abandoned military base equipped with an anti-orbital laser! The next part will be published some time in 2014.

The Agony (Album Review) was an obvious departure from what I usually focus on, which I enjoyed writing and like to revisit on occasion. It was enjoyable I to apply my reviewing repertoire to something different and I thought it worked rather well in the end, the post being filled with music videos too!

Finally my Iain Duncan Smith Critique was one of the most thorough essays outside of education that I have ever written, with the sources relevant, the writing sufficiently angry and the arguments well-constructed. I felt quite proud to be honest!

As well as these pieces, I was also invited to write for a university blog about digital developments thanks to my Carat Internship Journal, the essay that I wrote for them should be being published before the end of this month. I will post it here once it's gone up! But the main development for me this year is that I finished the first draft of my novel SKYSCARR, an achievement so great that I still can't believe I'm redrafting it presently, and I'm not even 20 yet! But the hard work begins here, and I've got to juggle this between trying to find another internship (paid in industry for a whole year,) which is forever worrying.

So in conclusion this year, I've seen writing, reading and a great time at university and it is in those high spirits, that I wish you all the best in this forthcoming new year.

My New Year's Resolutions:

To WRITE more often, at least FOUR TIMES A WEEK for an HOUR or more.
To READ EVERY NIGHT for at LEAST 1 HOUR.

We can do it guys!

The Time Machine (Book Review)

As the new year approaches I hope that you've all had a terrific year and a joyous Christmas! Sorry I've been inactive for the last couple of weeks but I've been rather busy as of late around this time. But now we can return to normal and end the Old Year with a good old-fashioned book review. For Christmas this year I received some books, being a somewhat avid reader, amongst which were Lord of the Flies, the Nobel Prize-winning, 1954 dystopian schoolboy masterpiece, from William Golding; I-Robot, the progenitor hi-tech collection of stories upon which the very field of Robotics was founded by scientist Isaac Asimov and finally, the book that I will review today: The Time Machine. The 1895 tale from biologist H. G. Wells is seen alongside Jules Verne's 20000 Leagues Under the Sea as a definitive tale, that founded the genre of Science Fiction itself.

One of the three grandfathers of Science Fiction, Wells has constructed a classic scenario of the human condition and the political possibilities of how our race might develop, epitomised by the struggle endured by a tranquil surface race (the Eloi) at the enjoyment of their wretched subterranean brethren, the Morlocks, in the distant future held in store for us, in 802,701 AD.

The story is quite short at just under 100 pages, but contained within those pages is a sublime journey across the fourth dimension into contrasting worlds constructed so vividly, that one can reach out and touch it; you can live and breathe the very tale, which seldom happens in my opinion and even as I write this passage and think back to the penultimate chapter, I get shivers just thinking about the dying Earth visited in the year 13,000,000-odd AD, where a brackish sea and a frighteningly large, red sun greets our unnamed time-traveller. And I think back further and consider the year in which it was written, 1895, and try to imagine a probably science-illiterate public and their reaction to the story, with a hodgepodge of opinions flying like bullets as a new-fangled concept emerged; that of time-travel.

Wells' writing in this story is in past tense, with almost every paragraph contained in speech marks as the story follows the time-traveller's recollections of his time spent in the far future, explaining it to a group of incredulous people, most of whom are named by simple archetypes such as "the Editor," "the Psychologist," "the Journalist" etc. Even our time-traveller lacks a name, which is impressive given that he is no 'cookie-cutter' character and when others refer to him in speech, his name becomes simply "Mr. -" This idiosyncrasy is similar to the voice of the time-traveller himself, with the voice being -as one might expect- rather educated and 'old-fashioned', with explanations taking up -on occasion- more words than necessary, though this seems only to strengthen the character, demonstrating his knowledge as unusual Latin lone-words creep into explanations of nature, applied to the plant life for example, which is testament to the author's knowledge of biology, which serves only to make the read even more fascinating.

The ease of reading the novel is similar to Orwell's 1984 for me, with a similar tone of voice albeit tackling a very different topic, which made this even more enjoyable, with the ability to relieve, frighten and disgust the reader equally present in both Author's repertoires.

Suffice it to say, The Time Machine has been a great pleasure of a book, presenting a vivid world, a developed cast of characters and a surprisingly rich storyline that still to this day, is far from being 'primitive'. His almost prophetic prose and unsettling predictions is matched by a brilliant insight into Wells' Socialist politics and the political orthodoxy during which the book was written, rendering the quote from the New Statesman's 1895 review "H. G. Wells has written a clever book..." a painful understatement.

Penguin's 2012 Edition

Iain Duncan Smith: A Critique

Yes, I'm delving into another unconventional article that goes off the metaphorical track, on which the train of this blog rolls. Iain Duncan Smith is a Conservative Party politician in the United Kingdom; a member of the current government, the Cameron Ministry (a coalition between the Liberal Democrats and Conservatives,) as well as Conservative Party leader between 2001-2003 before he was defeated in a vote of no-confidence (BBC, 2003: Online,) thereby becoming the second Conservative leader to not contest an election since Austen Chamberlain in 1921-22 (Brown, 2001: Online;) the first being William Hague in 2001, although at least he contested an election while Duncan Smith on the other hand, failed to survive as leader of the party long enough to do that.

Iain Duncan Smith; Secretary of State for Work & Pensions

That is Smith's background as far as major positions are concerned. Most recently he has drawn considerable controversy since taking office, particularly regarding his attitudes to social security and its claimants (both working and non-working,) as well as controversies surrounding the DWP's iniquitous use of statistics (BBC, 2013: Online.) He has consistently claimed that his plans are working -using figures and evidence- even though when such evidence painted a picture to the contrary (according to the UK Statistics Authority, 2013,) he defended his claims by saying "I know I am right" (Wintour, 2013: Online.)

Nothing exemplifies this kind of manoeuvring more than my own discovery a few months ago: Writing in The Guardian about his controversial Work Programme (a system wherein benefits claimants receive benefits from the government in exchange for working for companies such as Poundland- a particularly controversial case (see Morse, 2013,) IDS claimed in his humbly-titled article, 'I'm proud of our welfare reforms' which ran with the strap line: "I don't apologise for trying to make the welfare state fair- it's something only this government can do," that "Our Work Programme has launched and the industry tells us that so far 321,000 people have found jobs through it." The italics in that sentence represent a hyperlink to another Guardian article, the headline of which read: 'Welfare to work scheme failing to get people work, say figures' (my emphasis.) The strap line read: "Just 5.3% of people on incapacity benefit were helped into employment for at least six months by Work Programme." The article, from Butler (2013a) further stated that "Ministers were upbeat about the data, claiming that more than 130,000 jobseekers had "escaped long-term unemployment and found lasting work" as a result of the work programme." (My emphasis.) 

Far from being a good idea to want people to work for a private company for their state benefits, therefore degrading the value of the work carried out by current employees when those companies, like Poundland, have ample profitability to pay for such workers, which ultimately exacerbates our economic whims via more benefit claimants and low-paid workers, the fact that he linked to evidence running contrary to his opinion startles me beyond belief. How can a Cabinet Minister of Her Majesty's Government create such a transparent lie! 

Other exploits include Smith's 2012 Welfare Reform Act, specifically Section 69 Sub-section 344 Paragraph 2, which stipulates a means-tested approach to social housing (designated by local authorities) vis-a-vis bedroom size determinants, whereby 'extra' bedrooms not used by children or pensioners will suffer an "under occupancy penalty/subsidy," a decision commonly referred to as the "Bedroom Tax." This resonates memories with the so-called Poll Tax introduced at the end of, and which in part caused the downfall of, the Thatcher ministry in 1990; the Community Charge was amended to take account of individual bands and rates of social homes as opposed to being a simple flat tax that left some worse off than others. It was replaced by the Council Tax in 1993 by the Major ministry (BBC, 2005: Online.) The 'bedroom tax' has been criticised as being unfair by UN specialist Raquel Rolnik a couple of months ago (Johnston, 2013: Online) and has also been seen as a waste of money and government resources, as criticised by celebrity businessman Theo Paphitis on the BBC panel show Question Time in 2012. 

The main problem of course is that there isn't enough housing to move people into, with the DWP itself not knowing how many will need to be moved or where they will go; even if all pieces of such a jigsaw were fitted together optimally, the predicted £480 million saving (Butler, 2013b: Online- the figure is likely to be some £160 million less than predicted, according to a York academic) would be wasted on administrative costs associated with its implementation. Not only that but people will just not pay it. My source linking to the Poll Tax demonstrates this problem, with roughly 20% of people not paying the tax and simply not registering on the housing list or living in a 'single' room with a partner etc. This ill-thought out policy will, and has already in part, failed. Even a majority of the British public don't want it according to a ComRes poll (2013.)

A recent criticism of IDS has been his failed IT infrastructure surrounding the implementation of his Universal Credit scheme, a method of rolling all benefits into one package (Kirkup, 2013: Online.) The system has cost the taxpayers £425 million so far but with failures so consistent and manifold, £140 million of that, including numerous computer systems, faces being written off (Johnstone, 2013: Online.) This is yet another failure of IDS and is testament to his deficiencies as a Secretary of State; he is unfit for office in my opinion.  

I could go on with how much I personally detest IDS as a person, but I feel that this video taken from Question Time filmed in November of 2012 says more than I need to. If you need more evidence of how much of an unlikable person he is, search for his other defences of his workfare (the Work Programme) scheme and you'll see what I mean. It's much worse to hear it in person than to read his IQ-reducing, transparent, completely bullshit articles, that have about as much integrity as a desert has water.

I hope you have found this critique enjoyable and informative. As a final criticism of Iain Duncan Smith, HERE, is where he said he could live on £53 a week. And HERE is the petition that urges him to prove it, by living in such circumstances for a whole year. 

He has yet to rise to the challenge . . . 

Thanks for reading this post and seeing as you're here, give this a watch:

The Bedroom Tax Song!

More Recent Critique of UKIP

REFERENCES:

- BBC (2003) http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk_politics/3223853.stm [Online] [accessed November 5th 2013]

- BBC (2005) http://news.bbc.co.uk/onthisday/hi/dates/stories/august/14/newsid_2495000/2495911.stm [Online] [accessed November 8th 2013]

- BBC (2013) http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-22462265 [Online] [accessed November 8th 2013]

- Brown, D (2001) http://www.theguardian.com/politics/2001/jun/08/election2001.comment7 'Austen Chamberlain, history's first Hague' The Guardian June 8th [Online] [accessed November 8th 2013]

- Butler, P (2013a) http://www.theguardian.com/society/2013/jun/27/welfare-work-failing-figures?guni=Article:in%20body%20link 'Wellfare to work failing to get people work, figures say' The Guardian June 27th [Online] [accessed November 8th 2013]

- Butler, P (2013b) http://www.theguardian.com/society/2013/oct/14/bedroom-tax-ministers-likely-savings 'Bedroom tax: savings likely to be '£160 million less than official projections' The Guardian October 14th [Online] [accessed November 8th 2013]

- ComRes. (2013) The People Bedroom Tax Poll February 13th-14th [Available from: http://www.comres.co.uk/poll/852/the-people-bedroom-tax-poll.htm] [accessed November 9th 2013]
  
- Duncan Smith, I (2013) http://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2013/jul/28/proud-welfare-reforms-fair-benefits 'I'm proud of our welfare reforms' The Guardian July 28th [Online] [accessed November 8th 2013]

- Morse, F (2013) http://www.huffingtonpost.co.uk/2013/02/20/iain-duncan-smiths-explodes-on-lbc-over-workfare_n_2725765.html 'Iain Duncan Smith's anger over Poundland, Workfare & Cait Reilly boils over on LBC' Huffington Post UK February 20th [Online] [accessed November 8th 2013]

- Johnston, I (2013) http://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/politics/un-investigator-raquel-rolnik-calls-for-governments-bedroom-tax-to-be-axed-8807678.html 'UN investigator Raquel Rolnik calls for government's 'bedroom tax' to be axed' The Independent September 11th [Online] [accessed November 8th 2013]

- Johnstone, R (2013) http://www.publicfinance.co.uk/news/2013/11/botched-universal-credit-project-could-cost-millions/ 'Botched Universal Credit project 'could cost millions'' Public Finance November 7th [Online] [accessed November 9th 2013]

- Kirkup, J (2013) http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/politics/10431631/Chaotic-welfare-reforms-should-be-postponed.html 'Chaotic welfare reforms 'should be postponed'' The Telegraph November 7th [Online] [accessed November 9th 2013]

- UK Statistics Authority. (2013) 'Chair of the UK Statistics Authority, Andrew Dilnott CBE' Letter to Iain Duncan Smith May 9th [Online] "Department for work and pensions statistics" [accessed November 8th 2013]

- Welfare Reform Act 2012 (c. 5) London: HMSO [Available from: http://www.legislation.gov.uk/ukpga/2012/5/notes/division/5/3/6] [accessed November 8th 2013]

- Wintour, P (2013) http://www.theguardian.com/politics/2013/jul/15/iain-duncan-smith-statistics-benefits-cap 'Iain Duncan Smith defends use of statistics over benefits cap' The Guardian July 15th [Online] [accessed November 8th 2013]