Over recent months Gita Saghal has become something of a heroine for red baiters. Since her very public split with Amnesty International, she has popped up frequently to make dubious claims about the left, the human rights movement, and their connection with political Islam. “Here in Britain”, she said in one interview: Political Islam and [...]
David Laws shouldn’t resign for being gay or renting a flat. These are perfectly fine, normal things to do and be. People need to rent flats, and people often have lovers. To rent a flat off a lover isn’t that strange either. It’s quite sensible in some ways. Having a lover, of any gender, isn’t [...]
Nick Clegg is right about one thing: After 13 years of New Labour authoritarianism laws to restore our liberties really ought to be on the agenda. Yet, despite the scrapping of ID, I do not believe that the Cleggeron government are capable of rising to such a challenge. So I thought we the I would [...]
A few weeks ago we reported the closure of the Philosophy Department at Middlesex University, and since then the fight to keep it open has continued. Alongside many thousands of people signing petitions, there has been a two-week occupation of one of the large administrative centres on the Trent Park campus, and after that was [...]
On Tuesday the Guardian printed a fascinating and excellent piece by the philosopher Etienne Balibar. Unfortunately they chose to give it the slightly misleading title “Europe is a dead Political Project“. In fact Balibar argues that the European Union, it’s currency, it’s government and its technocrats, is looking doomed, but that this urgently poses the [...]
Writing in today’s Guardian, the last standard bearer of the dead dream that is a socialist Labour Party hit out at critics by saying that if necessary, he would stand aside to secure Diane Abbot’s nomination for Labour leader. In fact, John McDonnell went further to say that “if my standing down would mean securing [...]
Sam Leith, writing in the evening standard might have had a point when he said that the real lobbying industry – selling access to people with real political power – matters far more than Fergie threatening to introduce somebody to the fatally dim Prince Andrew. Nonetheless I am deeply smug about Fergie’s situation due to [...]
Despite the fact that most of the people who write on this blog are Cambridge grads, we have (rightly, in my view), kept posts about matters Oxbridge to a minimum so far. So with that in mind, I apologise in advance for this post – given that it follows Dave Osler’s post at LibCon on [...]
So today the blogosphere has been wrring and grrring over Con Dem plans to grant anonimity to rape victims. Harpymarx and Jess McCabe on the F word, and others have articulated their opposition to it. I must say that in some ways I have been disappointed with the scope of the discussion so far. This [...]
Last week the French cabinet approved plans to ban the burqa in public places. Women who wear the veil in public face a fine of $185 dollars and compulsory classes in French values, along with imprisonment if they do not comply. It goes without saying that a woman wearing a full face veil – her [...]
