The Norwich Radical - September 2026 Issue
Welcome to the September 2026 Issue of The Norwich Radical. And, of course, welcome to Andy 'Quick Wins' Burnham's new Britain!
That's right, we're getting £2 bus tickets, fully funded social care, help-to-buy schemes, and more - or so we're hearing for now. It was a real positive surprise to see our new PM break from past governments' trend of doublespeak around the persecution of the Palestinian people, bringing in sanctions on Israel soon after taking office. But it is still the honeymoon period between his installation and his first budget, and with mixed messages still coming from Labour about the treatment of migrants, corporate finances and trans rights, many of us are not yet convinced that Burnham's don't-call-it-socialism Britain is going to be more hospitable to us than Starmer's Tory-lite version.
As always, at The Norwich Radical we work to investigate the history and systemic factors that brought us to our current moment, as well as the many inflections of the lives we live beneath the headlines. In this issue, Eve Hilton brings us a thoroughgoing examination of the medical suspicion of women, and a rebuttal of a recent trend in the right-wing press towards questioning the validity of young disabled women's experience. In our other main piece, Howard Green reviews the recent appearance of Brooklyn band Nation of Language at The Waterfront - extensively marketed by an impressively ubiquitous poster campaign. And we round out the issue with a rerun of our call for new writers. If you've ever wanted to know more about how our little values-first publication has kept going for over 12 years - and how to get involved - then read on!
You can support our work financially by visiting our Steady page to set up a recurring donation. If you'd like to volunteer with us as a writer, editor or artist, or to pitch a one-off piece, you can reach us at [email protected].
September 2026 Issue - Contents
THE SUSPICION OF DISABLED WOMEN IS NOTHING NEW
NATION OF LANGUAGE - GIG REVIEW
WRITE FOR THE NORWICH RADICAL
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THE SUSPICION OF DISABLED WOMEN IS NOTHING NEW
By Eve Hilton
There is a long history to the medical suspicion of women. The vocabulary may change but the structure persists: the hysterical woman exaggerated, the neurotic woman somatised, the anxious woman misinterpreted her body. The contemporary disabled woman, increasingly, has discovered her symptoms on TikTok or some other form of social media. She has diagnosed herself, joined an online community, acquired a walking stick, or recognised herself in the description of a mental or neurodevelopmental disorder. This outlook presents itself as scepticism, but is instead entrenched in a long and weary history of the mistrust of women’s self-reported experiences.
Read more
NATION OF LANGUAGE - GIG REVIEW
By Howard Green
When was the last time you walked around Norwich spotting the same poster in seemingly every window you pass? My most recent memory of a band generating such a visual presence across the city is when the Happy Mondays played at the LCR – respectable company for the ascending indie band Nation of Language, the newest entrants into this club. Given that almost every cafe or pub seemed to have that monochrome poster hanging in their front window at one point or another over the past couple of months, their Waterfront gig at the end of August came to feel like a bit of an event.
Read more
WRITE FOR THE NORWICH RADICAL
By NR Editorial Team
The Norwich Radical was founded as, and remains, a collective passion project. Our first aim has always been to create and maintain a space where our fluctuating group of Norwich-connected idealists can publish the words we want to write and to read. Some things need saying, irrespective of whether they will drive clicks.
Read moreWhether our new leader's promised quick wins materialise over the coming months or not, we can still do right by each other to try and protect our communities from the many crises of our times. Stand together, stay safe, stay loud.
Solidarity,
The Norwich Radical Team
