As a lefty, it can be surprisingly easy to become quite blasé about the Royal family. Sure, a hereditary unelected Head of State flies in the face of any halfway-sensible notion of equality, and Prince Philip might come out with the odd bit of bigoted rubbish from time to time (OK, pretty much all the [...]
Reuben’s article made some very valid points, not least that Andrew Mitchell’s comments show just how radically out of touch the Tory elites running this country are from the vast majority of us. Should Mitchell be hung out to dry for his comments? Undoubtedly so. Is it a good thing that he has brought fresh shame [...]
Conservative party treasurer Lord Fink is lobbying George Osborne to make the UK more like a tax haven so that hedge fund owners like himself no longer feel they have to set up subsidiaries in tax havens where vast profits can be squirreled away untouched by the British government. The same British government that is [...]
Anne-Marie Slaughter’s article in the Atlantic was brought to my attention the other day by a feminist friend who was unsure of her feelings about it. Certainly the piece has received a lot of praise. It is by far the most popular article ever published in the magazine. But, as I told my friend, Slaughter [...]
Today Ed Miliband spoke at the Sutton Trust’s annual conference on social mobility. I must admit that the politics of social mobility has always left me rather cold. To put it quite bluntly, when a banker or lawyer can earn 100 times more than the person who cleans their office, this situation raises far bigger [...]
Dear Judges, In 1748, the Baron of Montesquieu singled out the English political system as an exemplary form of protection of liberties, and the avoidance of corruption and despotism. He described in The Spirit of the Laws the separation between what we would now call the legislative, judiciary and executive powers. His argument was extremely [...]
Vince Cable, the Business Secretary, has just provided yet more evidence that he is, in fact, an odious little shit. In a speech to a union conference, he warned that if widespread public sector strikes take place (which seems likely), the government would enact new anti-strike legislation. This is part of the speech obtained by the [...]
In maybe the most offensive manifestation of the Daily Telegraph‘s slide from serious paper of record to hate-filled propaganda rag for the literate over-80s, their personal finance editor, Ian Cowie, brings us the following suggestion to improve Britain’s democracy: …here’s an idea that might really stir up some interest – and improve our nation’s governance.Why don’t we [...]
We can’t in all honesty, remember if one met Kate Middleton at St Andrews. We may well have – St Andrews is a small place, without any appreciable nightlife beyond the two streets where the students cluster. With the weather so consistently bleak only alcohol could really induce us to travel outside. And so to [...]
“There is nothing necessarily dignified about manual labour at all, and most of it is absolutely degrading…To sweep a slushy crossing for eight hours on a day when the east wind is blowing is a disgusting occupation. To sweep it with mental, moral, or physical dignity seems to me to be impossible. To sweep it [...]
