“They hate miners, the Tories do. Always have done, always will do”: so said Alan Gascoyne, a former branch secretary of the National Union of Mineworkers in Derbyshire, a leading militant in the 1984/5 Miners’ Strike which broke the union and finished the industry. Decades on, mining communities still live in the social debris of […]
In freedom’s spring, after the collapse of the Soviet Union at the beginning of the 1990s, some western leaders’ consciences turned to thoughts of sharing more widely the gifts democracy had given us – free choice of governments, freedom of speech and the press, civil society, dispassionate justice and more. That part of humanity should […]
It’s discouraging that a muscular defence of free speech in education has often been lacking in schools and universities, the very institutions which most advertise their commitment to it. Even more discouragingly, rather than fighting back, the victims are wont to collapse into guilt-ridden confessions, studded with hollow platitudes about ‘deep regret’ and ‘recognising the […]
Progressivism no longer defines the reformist movement it once was. It has been detached, or at best semi-detached, from the politics of working people, the ‘broad social movement on behalf of the underdog’, as the Labour Party used to define it. Instead, a large part of the modern left not only differs from its former […]
Baroness Kingsmill ought not to be easily fooled. A deputy chairwoman of the Monopolies and Mergers Commission from 1996-2003, in receipt of five honorary doctorates from British universities, she was made a Labour peer in 2006, for services to competition and the common law. Yet she’s been fooled by Nicola Sturgeon, or NS, as she […]
You have to hand it to the Putinites. They have imbibed KGB tactics from the master and wield them with both subtlety and precision. Alexei Navalny has been seen by much of the democratic world as a champion of freedom. So, no more Mr Nice Guy. Time to degrade him in the eyes of the […]
However much the SNP might like to claim otherwise, the independence of Scotland is not just Scotland’s business. It is also the business of the state which would be broken by it. The Scots’ nation is Scotland, but they are citizens of the United Kingdom. The secession of one breaks the other: to strive to […]
A “Union in Crisis” led the Sunday Times yesterday, and it will have spoiled more mornings than mine. The presentation was full, clear and the commentary was by those who knew whereof they wrote: while Economics Editor David Smith reminded us that London and the south-east’s “great river of cash” kept the three ‘Celtic’ nations’ […]
A “Union in Crisis” led the Sunday Times yesterday, and it will have spoiled more mornings than mine. The presentation was full, clear and the commentary was by those who knew whereof they wrote: while Economics Editor David Smith reminded us that London and the south-east’s “great river of cash” kept the three ‘Celtic’ nations’ […]
Yesterday Richard Leonard, the man who had led Scottish Labour since November 2017, announced his resignation, effective immediately. He’s had a miserable time, as a once dominant party slipped into third place behind the all-conquering nationalists and the once near-invisible Conservatives. A former trade union official, a supporter of Jeremy Corbyn and a decent person […]
The encomiums for the late John le Carré from every corner of the British media, and from large parts of the American, bear witness to a nearly global enjoyment of immersion in the le Carré world. His people, drawn from the beginning of his writing career with great artistry, are unillusioned, courageous and patriotic, but […]
In a recent burst of liberal hubris, the Washington Post argued that Joe Biden’s presidency would “bolster liberal, internationalist forces across the Atlantic” and cause the decline of the Europe’s nationalists. But it won’t. The populist parties grew strongly before Donald Trump came to power (when it was generally agreed that Hilary Clinton would win […]
Disinterested benevolence can find other instruments to persuade people to their good than whips or scourges, either of the literal or metaphorical sort. – J S Mill. ‘On Liberty’ Soon after an attack on Glasgow airport by suicide bombers in 2007, the Glasgow comedian Billy Connolly did a stand-up routine in which he excoriated Islamist […]
Objectivity is a central tenet of American journalism, a matter debated more, and more influentially, than in any other media culture. But its a principle that’s under attack – and the results are of worldwide significance. Social responsibility has been the lodestar for US reporters, commentators and editors since the second world war, a duty […]
It would seem a quixotic, or a plain silly thing to recommend the strengthening of trade unions on an opinion site attached to a famed right-of-centre economic think tank, which played such a large role in the Thatcher governments. But hear, or scan, me out. This drear time is presently rich in calls for a […]
The Prime Minister is a tormented soul. His instincts – libertarian, even libertine – are at war with his prime ministerial duties to protect the people he rules. Last week, the Policing Minister Kit Malthouse said that citizens should report a breach of the rule which sets the limit of meetings at six His remark, […]
Ben Thomson, an Edinburgh businessman with a small think tank, Reform Scotland, has unveiled a new plan for more radical devolution of powers to Scotland. It proposes that the bulk of financial and economic issues be devolved – budget, tax, borrowing – and only monetary policy, defence and foreign affairs would be reserved to Westminster. […]
Civic virtue – a belief in and a commitment to behaviour and action which serves a common social purpose – is expected to be the moral posture necessary for anyone seeking elected office, especially in national legislatures. The task of developing, debating and voting on legislation which will provide a framework to determine the lives […]
In his stimulating The Rise of the Civilizational State (2019), the LSE professor Christopher Coker sketches how those nation states who also see themselves as civilisations – China, Russia and the US above all others – define themselves. These ascribed virtues include social solidarity, popular values, a history of upright and noble leaders, opposition to “savage” […]
It becomes ever clearer that there is a deep rift between classic, or old-fashioned liberals (OFLs), and new-fashioned liberals (NFLs). OFL’s – like JK Rowling – believe individual freedom is best protected by an environment of free speech and debate. NFL’s – like US Democratic Congresswoman Alexandra Ocasio-Cortez – see individuals as needing protection from […]
