About

I am Edwin Tasker. It's a pseudonym. Named for a scoundrel grandfather and the occupation of a great grandfather. Of such is heritage.

No matter, the real me, if such an entity actually exists for more than the time it takes for a Higgs Boson to decay, is a writer, film-maker and commentator.

The muse is on me…

I used to work for a living in the third sector until Cameron and Clegg (with Veterano Osborne in the wings) put an end to all that. Now I scrape a living in the low-wage economy. I can say no more being sworn to the kind of secrecy more typical of protection rackets and mobsters. (Taps nose, you ain't seen me…).

The Referendum made me give voice to my political self. That's a strange being as well. I'm not a joiner, so I've steered clear of membership in favour of support and shouting from the sidelines. Owing no allegiances. So be it.

My guiding principles in the run-up to September 18th 2014 were social justice, fairness, giving people their voices, making democracy real through the argument and not the acceptance. It had (and still has) nothing to do with nationalism. I'm a declared internationalist. I want to look outward and include, not lock ourselves away by sundry exclusions for fear of losing our identity.

Identity, that's important. It's the paradox so may of the politically established don't understand. Despite their constant striving to maintain their political identity and some homogenised notion of 'us' included in it. For me identity is an internalised form of self-worth and based on recognition. Being recognised as who you are and having the right to it, just as you recognise the same in others: their right, too.

Out of that, any national identity takes borders, should they exist at all, as boundaries of definition, not lines drawn to defend. It embodies recognition and celebration of difference as well as how borders and boundaries also define interconnection.

As a postscript, McLeman Hill is my creative collaborator. As real as the next man. Whoa! I am the next man!