There is one aspect of betrayal that is that of our current Prime Minister who, less than two months before the referendum, gave a remarkably sensible speech on EU membership at the Institute of Mechanical Engineers. On the basis of its contents she has certainly betrayed the country and probably herself, but not perhaps (yet)… Read more
Category:
Society
Police not investigating the misdeeds of Leave because of ‘political sensitivities’?
I think all of those interested in the Rule of Law should look at this ‘Open Democracy’ Article here. If the Metropolitan Police really are not investigating the misdeeds of Leave because of ‘political sensitivities’ we must consider whether or not we are in a country where the Rule of Law prevails or whether in… Read more
Weimar and discovering the case against austerity
Having recently been criticised by someone who considers that the history of the Weimar Republic means that the government can never print money, and that governments should more properly follow the advice of sober bankers, I countered that the Reichstag was actually private at the time so it was not the government printing the money… Read more
Ready to Eat – or not?
We should not forget that “Prêt à manger” actually means “Ready to eat”. Calling it PRET disguises the idea, though I’m sure those that work for them have rarely, if indeed ever, thought about their origins. So they completely lost the philosophy of the company name when a poor girl succumbed to her allergy. We… Read more
Bankrupt Legislation
An interesting programme last night on Radio 4 about bankruptcy – something to which I have been close for about 5 years or so of my life. What disaster befell me? Just a corrupt solicitor, who unfortunately deceived me. He went to jail in due course – and I doubt he enjoyed it as he… Read more
The ‘co-operative’ eyes have it
Since Thatcher gained power we have always been told how it is competition that ensures the survival of the fittest and this is the way that societies advance. I’m not sure that Darwinian advances were ever actually widely thought to operate on this level, as it was more of a system indicating long term progress… Read more
Our Institutions No Longer Serve This New Era. The Public Understand, Why Haven’t We?
Feel I should flag up a talk “Our Institutions No Longer Serve This New Era. The Public Understand, Why Haven’t We?” on last Wednesday week’s ′21st-Century Power: the state, citizens and civil society’ event in London. The Labour MP for Wigan, Lisa Nandy, was reported verbatim by the [link]’Huffington Post’ and this is well worth… Read more
A wonderful Tweet from Russ in Cheshire
Who I don’t know, but I really sympathise with. I cannot vouch for all of the detail – but I’m pretty certain that some of the statistics are ONS compliant. It rather effectively adds to the tale of woe that Charles has just posted here. Russ in Cheshire: Social Justice Catering Corps. Designer, data-analyst. Once… Read more
Reasons to be cheerless:
It is projected only to get worse. And next year there is Brexit to look forward to…. Read more
Despair of ‘The Left’
Grace Blakeley, of the IPPR, has written a tour de force on the financialisation of capitalism on the Jacobin website and bemoans, as do most of us, the lack of proper change since the financial crisis. She sums up the pre 2008 situation rather neatly, I thought: This class of [middle class] “mini-capitalists” had a… Read more