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Category: Society

More on ‘Gay Cakes’

More on ‘Gay Cakes’

Earlier this week, the Supreme Court ruled in favour of Asher’s Bakery over whether they were allowed to refuse to bake a cake bearing the slogan ‘Support Gay Marriage’. They agreed that Asher’s would have happily served other products to gay people and would have refused to make a cake bearing that slogan for anyone, gay or straight. The issue was the message, not the identity of the people being served. https://www.google.co.uk/amp/s/www.bbc.co.uk/news/amp/uk-northern-ireland-45789759 Though I support gay marriage, I believe the…

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Postmodernism and the Devil

Postmodernism and the Devil

“Roper: So now you’d give the Devil benefit of law! More: Yes. What would you do? Cut a great road through the law to get after the Devil? Roper: I’d cut down every law in England to do that! More: Oh? And when the last law was down, and the Devil turned round on you — where would you hide, Roper, the laws all being flat? This country’s planted thick with laws from coast to coast — man’s laws, not…

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Some Thoughts on the Culture Wars

Some Thoughts on the Culture Wars

It’s hard to imagine now just how controversial and offensive Monty Python’s Life of Brian was when it first came out. BBC and ITV refused to show it, it was banned by a number of town councils and cinemas were picketed by angry people who felt it shouldn’t have been made. For someone like me, who grew up seeing it as irreverent, slightly rude humour, not particularly different to Fawlty Towers, it can be hard to see it this way….

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A Social Policy Trilemma

A Social Policy Trilemma

There is a trilemma in economics that states that a nation can only have two of the following three things: – Free movement of capital – A fixed monetary exchange rate – An independent monetary policy. All three of these are things that a country would sometimes quite like to have; however, the trilemma states that if a country has two of them, the third must in consequence be given up – it is not possible to maintain all three…

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Happy Birthday, NHS

Happy Birthday, NHS

Happy Birthday, NHS! I’m proud to celebrate the 70th anniversary of one of Britain’s best and most brilliant institutions. The NHS is absolutely fantastic. I’ve personally been fortunate enough in my health that I’ve not needed much from the NHS beyond childhood vaccinations and the mending of a broken finger, but every other member of my immediate family, and many of my friends, owe their lives to it. I don’t normally talk about my family on this blog, but I’ll…

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Gay Cakes and the Concept of a Legitimate Customer

Gay Cakes and the Concept of a Legitimate Customer

For some reason, bakeries have found themselves at the forefront of the culture war between gay rights and freedom of religion activists, with cases in both the UK and the US recently ending up in their respective Supreme Courts. Fortunately, the last person I know who opened a bakery was a senior and highly capable lawyer. These two points may be entirely unconnected. In this post I will be focusing more on the UK case as I am more familiar…

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Conservative Home article: Tranferrable Tax Allowances and Free Child Care

Conservative Home article: Tranferrable Tax Allowances and Free Child Care

My latest article on Conservative Home argues that families should be offered a choice between the 30 hours of free childcare or a transferable tax allowance, to enable a more genuine choice between whether they should both return to work, and to allow more parents who wish to to care for their own children. The full article is here: Iain Mansfield: To bring greater fairness to families, free childcare should be linked to the transferable tax allowance

Plastic Bags, Social Change and Competition

Plastic Bags, Social Change and Competition

Tesco and Morrisons have stopped providing plastic bags for 5p – instead, the cheapest bag you can buy costs 10p (and is slightly higher quality, intended for reuse). Asda has announced it intends to do so at the end of the year. Sainbury’s still offers 5p bags (though they are also higher quality and intended for reuse). M&S and Waitrose (which have a noticeably smaller market share than the big four) still offer 5p bags. This is a fascinating development….

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