Browsed by
Month: June 2019

Call for Guest Bloggers

Call for Guest Bloggers

A call for those who’d like to write a guest post for this site. In particular, I would be interested in featuring: 1) Posts on political/economic topics that I think are important to explore, am not opposed to, and interesting enough to what to know more about but not interesting enough to do all the research myself. For example: Universal basic income. Fiscally neutral land value taxes. How to really build more houses without destroying green spaces. Non-hair-shirted ways of…

Read More Read More

Looking along a light-beam

Looking along a light-beam

I’ve recently started reading the Chronicles of Narnia to my eldest child and, even though we are bringing up our children in the Christian faith, I’ve taken a deliberate decision to not explain the Christian symbolism to him. Now, this may simply be a bias on my part. I read the Chronicles myself without any awareness of the hidden meaning(1) and enjoyed them tremendously, an enjoyment that was no way tarnished when I discovered that meaning as a teenager. Also,…

Read More Read More

A History of the World in 100 Pictures

A History of the World in 100 Pictures

I recently read a brilliant children’s non-fiction book by Usborne, A History of the World in 100 Pictures. Last year I suggested that the goal of the compulsory years of the secondary school curriculum should be to give an overview of world history, its drivers and where Britain fits in it (the curriculum was roughly: 1/3 UK, 1/3 Europe, 1/3 the world). A lot of people got very angry at me for suggestion something so ‘elitist’, for thinking that pupils…

Read More Read More

Religious discrimination in Canada

Religious discrimination in Canada

Last week the government of Quebec passed a discriminatory law that would ban the wearing of kippah (skull caps), turbans and hijabs (headscarfs), among other religious symbols, for all public servants in ‘positions of authority’. This includes teachers, police officers, judges and others. At a stroke, this law bars traditional religious people – many of whom may feel morally obliged to wear such symbols – from a large swathe of public life. It is not the case that all religious…

Read More Read More

My Dream Tory Cabinet

My Dream Tory Cabinet

Preamble: I’m supporting Boris in the leadership election and for the purposes of this article am assuming that, as the polls suggest, he will win the membership vote. I’ll save the longer article on why Boris for a later date and for now focus on the rest of the Cabinet – because a government is about much more than one person. Prime Minister: Boris Johnson – the only candidate of the remaining two who can deliver Brexit by 31 October,…

Read More Read More

Ten Thinkers that Have Influenced Me

Ten Thinkers that Have Influenced Me

Defining influence is tricky. We have all undoubtedly been influenced by many people; in particular parents, teachers, friends and others we spend time with. Yet when talking with others about about those views are insightful, ‘hang around with my friends’ is not particularly useful, and parents or teachers are even less accessible. So we think of public figures. In coming up with this list, I’ve focused on those who’ve helped to bring particular issues into focus, or to shed light…

Read More Read More

Website Updates

Website Updates

I’ve recently made a number of updates to this website. Highlights include: Adding a Patreon, in case anyone enjoys or values this blog enough to want to support it financially (click the link at the end of this post). Updating the wording on the Home Page. Adding an ‘About Me’ section to the ‘About and Contact‘ page. Adding a new ‘Support and Purchase‘, bringing together all of the various items I have that can be purchased (many other items, including…

Read More Read More

Signal-boosting: Free Speech

Signal-boosting: Free Speech

A short, eloquent and powerful explanation of why, ‘But free speech only means the government can’t arrest you,’ is a terrible defence for those who seek to defend silencing others. Laws, Principles and Social Norms I agree with it completely.

Prorogation, Salisbury and Self-Denying Ordinances

Prorogation, Salisbury and Self-Denying Ordinances

“We’ve gone from a democratic exercise involving over 33 million people to the future direction of the country being decided by c.100k+ people while making the rules up as we go along and in which suspending parliament is being seriously discussed. Well done everyone.” – Philip Cowley, Professor of Politics at Queen Mary University, London A quote that’s as brutal as it is accurate. The UK has been slowly lurching into a constitutional crisis for at least the last six…

Read More Read More

Five tit-bits from Ashcroft’s European Election poll

Five tit-bits from Ashcroft’s European Election poll

As he often does, Lord Ashcroft did a large post-election poll of over 10,000 voters which looked in detail at who people voted for, who they’d previously voted for and why they voted. The full article and results are well worth reading, but here are five tit-bits. Only 21% of people who voted Conservative in 2017 and voted in this election, and only 38% of those who voted Labour, voted for the same party in the European elections. More than…

Read More Read More

%d bloggers like this: