Tag: Politics

  • IS POLITICS “A LITANY OF FUTILITY”?

    So watching the (mostly dreadful) debate in Parliament today about the riots, Paul Graham Raven (@PaulGrahamRaven) made a comment in a tweet that hoping for progressive change in politics in the “last decade feels like a litany of futility”. Being more of a pint-half-full person and slightly obsessive about the details – I decided to […]

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  • AN EYE FOR AN EYE MAKES THE WHOLE WORLD BLIND

    Watching the little shits who are causing the riots in London wreck and rob and burn their way through the streets can’t help but make you angry. The urge to give them some of their own medicine – to respond to violence with violence – is almost overwhelming. But it must be resisted. You won’t […]

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  • ANALOGIES, ECONOMICS AND THE AMERICAN DEBT “CRISIS”

    Perhaps the strangest and most depressing thing about the situation unfolding at the top of American politics this month has been how little of it has anything to do with the actual economic situation facing America. As I started writing this piece there was a senior Republican congressman on my television explaining how the Boehner […]

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  • JOHN STUART MILL AND THE HORROR IN NORWAY

    When faced with appalling events such as those that occured in Norway yesterday it can be difficult to respond rationally. The murder of so many young people who were guilty of nothing more than enthusiasm and idealism inspires pity, grief, anger and disbelief. There’s no reason that could excuse such an act but that it […]

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  • DID THE NETWORK BEAT MURDOCH?

    Judging by the excitement in some circles it appears that there are an awful lot of people who believe that something fundamental has changed this week as the disgraceful antics at the News of the World finally bubbled to the surface of the nation’s political consciousness. Murdoch’s News International empire has definitely taken a battering […]

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  • POLITICS, ECONOMICS, DEBT, SPENDING & GROWTH – INSPIRED BY AN SF STORY

    So I was reading a story submitted by an author in a writing group I belong to and he’d decided to write a story with a political background. It was supposed to be set in the future but he couldn’t resist dropping in one of those slightly ranting asides about the present state of the […]

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  • WHY I’M NOT HAPPY WITH THE AV RESULT EVEN THOUGH I VOTED “NO”

    So I voted no on the AV referendum (for reasons set out here), therefore you’d probably imagine I’m delighted with the result. I’m not. I’m angry.

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  • WHY I’M VOTING “NO” TO AV EVEN THOUGH I SUPPORT ELECTORAL REFORM

    Actually, that title should probably read, “Why I’m voting “No” to AV because I support electoral reform”… Electoral reform is something I’ve been interested in for many years. I’ve been a bit of a nerd about electoral systems (amongst many other things) since university when I spent two years as the student union’s returning officer […]

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  • IRON MAN: CAPITALIST ICON?

    Jonathan McCalmont’s always provocative SF Diplomat blog has published an interesting piece on Iron Man. His reading of early Iron Man as a straightforward, modernist, anti-communist hero is perfectly defensible, but I’ve felt there was always something more to Iron Man/Tony Stark’s character that, typical of the work of Stan Lee, has meant that there […]

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  • LOOKING FOR EVIDENCE OF THE NEW POLITICS: GLOBALISATION, POWER & DEMOCRACY

    After the break you’ll find the abstract and introduction to my PhD thesis published in 2005. Looking back, I think I was probably considerably more optimistic about the potential for resistance to the big challenges facing liberal democracies than I am today, though I remain convinced that the scope for local, collective resistance remains far […]

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