Satir Change Model

How to survive your first incident response

If you have ever tried to set up a Security Incident Response Team (SIRT) function in a small organisation, you will know that it is not about security, incidents, or even teams. It is about humans behaving badly under stress. Enter the Satir Change Model, a tool from family therapy that has no right working in cybersecurity, and yet works better than most “cyber resilience frameworks”. Her five-stage model maps beautifully onto what happens when a small organisation suddenly decides to “get serious about incident response”. Building a SIRT is not about defeating chaos; it is about becoming fluent in it. And once you have done that, “It cannot get any worse” stops being a threat and starts being the team motto making people laugh, sending extra oxygen to their brain. ...

October 16, 2025 · 6 min
A futuristic building in the shape of a data stack, with each layer representing a halted phase of AI development: machine learning, neural networks, general intelligence. Each level more incomplete than the last. Signs of abandonment, cranes frozen mid-air, architectural plans strewn across a cracked smart glass wall. Above, a billboard shows a serene Earth with the slogan: “We chose balance.

The Great Pullback (best case)

It is fashionable to believe that technological progress is inevitable, and that artificial intelligence will, barring catastrophe, continue its relentless march forward. But there is a future, quietly lurking just beyond the smug grins of Silicon Valley keynote speeches, where AI does not progress much further at all. Not because of some singularity, nor because we all upload our brains into the cloud, but because we collectively decide: “That is quite enough, thank you.” ...

July 21, 2025 · 5 min

Turbulent coexistence (likely case)

Elijah never quite knew how to answer the question, “So, what do you do?” He could say AI liaison, but that sounded pompous and vaguely sinister. He could say digital compliance coordinator, but even his mother snorted at that one. In truth, he spent most of his days arguing with regulatory software about whether the hospital’s cancer diagnostics model violated EU data transparency directives or merely flirted with them. It was 2028, and Elijah worked at a hospital that could diagnose rare cancers with 99% accuracy. The machine, he refused to call it a colleague, could parse blood data, family history, and MRI scans in seconds. It was not always right, but it was close enough that human oversight had become more symbolic than necessary. ...

July 21, 2025 · 5 min
A woman at a supermarket checkout looks confused as the screen reads “PURCHASE BLOCKED: DIETARY POLICY.” Behind her, other shoppers face similar digital payment refusals for reasons like age restriction, carbon limit, and social credit, highlighting a dystopian scenario of programmable money control.

Digital currencies and their discontents

Digital currencies promise a brave new world of financial innovation. But let us not get carried away with the techno-optimism. These things are not just magic internet money, they come with a tangled web of risks, from eye-watering scams to dystopian surveillance features. Especially when central banks start sniffing around with programmable money and “policy precision”. Beneath the glossy marketing and breathless whitepapers lies a simple truth: digital currencies, while technically clever, may be socially and economically catastrophic if adopted blindly. This is about governments reengineering the monetary system with a fine-toothed comb and far too much enthusiasm. ...

July 11, 2025 · 9 min

The calculated chaos behind Israel's strike on Iran

Why did Israel really attack Iran? Analysis with wit and additional perspectives by PR included. Israel’s recent strikes on Iran mark a dramatic escalation in a decades-long shadow war that has finally emerged from the shadows, rather like a pensioner suddenly taking up parkour. The reasons behind this attack weave together existential threats, geopolitical manoeuvring, domestic politics, and enough ideological hostility to make a North London dinner party look tame. Below, the key drivers, from nuclear paranoia to Netanyahu’s increasingly creative approaches to job retention, with a deeper look at Iran’s creaking regime, a misfiring axis of resistance, and the global political theatre fuelling it all. ...

June 13, 2025 · 8 min · John Doe, Jane Smith

Israel’s far-right coalition and its consequences

Meet the key players Benjamin Netanyahu, Israel’s longest-serving prime minister, now in his sixth term, is a master of political survival. His current tenure is propped up by far-right allies, a necessity given his ongoing corruption trials (fraud, bribery, and breach of trust). His primary objectives are maintaining power, weakening the judiciary to shield himself from legal accountability, and balancing the demands of his extremist coalition partners while attempting to project an image of statesmanship to the outside world. ...

June 3, 2025 · 4 min

Russia’s youth exodus and the Kremlin’s desperate crackdown

Note: All personal names have been anonymised unless the individual has a verifiable public presence and wishes to be visible. I choose to run risks; I will not make that choice for others. He was 21 and already battling high blood pressure. His doctors confirmed it. His exemption papers were in order. But that didn’t stop them from coming for him. One morning in spring 2025, he opened his door to find officers holding a digital summons. No discussion. No delay. He was on a bus to a training facility by nightfall. Within a week, he was at the Ukrainian border, terrified, untrained, and furious. ...

June 3, 2025 · 6 min

The delusion of a peaceful modern europe

The received wisdom, trotted out at Davos panels, EU Commission summits, and in the more sentimental columns of the Financial Times, is that Europe, having learned its lessons from two world wars, has spent the past eight decades basking in a glow of enlightened tranquillity. No more trenches, no more blitzes. Just a polite consensus of democratic cooperation, cross-border trade, and the occasional fracas over mackerel quotas. How charming. And how utterly wrong. ...

May 27, 2025 · 7 min

Europe Inc. I. How neoliberal policies deepened economic inequality in Europe

Neoliberalism crept into Europe wearing a sharp suit and talking about efficiency. It promised a leaner, meaner state, less red tape, more growth, and a brighter future. What it delivered was stagnant wages, crumbling services, and Jeff Bezos in a rocket. For Europe, the cost has been clear: growing inequality, weakened public institutions, and a sense that someone, somewhere, has sold the family silver, and is now renting it back to us with interest. ...

May 13, 2025 · 6 min
The game is rigged

Europe Inc. II. Corporate hijacking of democracy and policy

European democracy, once sold to us as government for the people, increasingly resembles government for the shareholders. The slogans haven’t changed, “freedom”, “fairness”, “choice”, but behind the scenes, the boardroom has quietly replaced the ballot box as the place where real decisions are made. It’s not that politicians have stopped caring what the public thinks. It’s just that donors, lobbyists, and corporate advisors tend to shout louder, and arrive with champagne. ...

May 12, 2025 · 6 min