Tag Archives: jean-luc picard

Liberal heroes in pop culture Part 2: Captain Jean-Luc Picard from Star Trek: The Next Generation

This is the second of what will hopefully be a series of light-hearted pieces that we will publish over the summer. Please do nominate further entries in the comments! This one was suggested by Josh Kirk on Facebook!  For a link to Part 1, click here.

It is the 24th Century. Humans have explored nearly a quarter of the Galaxy. Energy and resources are almost limitless, all people are free to explore their full intellectual and emotional potential, and, for some reason, the French are now from Yorkshire. Not only that, but they drink Earl Grey (“hot”), play the flute, read detective stories, and make sexy baldness look effortless. Or maybe that’s just this particular Frenchman. I give you Captain Jean-Luc Picard, Captain of the USS Enterprise, NCC 1701-D.

Picard is a decisive, brilliant commander, whose own emotional reserve and professional detachment from his crew does not stop him from drawing on their suggestions and stratagems to help do the right thing, crack the problem of the week, and make the Federation a little wiser, and better. Aided by his Commander William Riker (“Number One”), Chief Engineer Geordi LaForge, Counsellor Deanna Troi and many others, the Enterprise crew is an example of collective discipline combined with useful, diverse ideological debate, and respectful divergence of opinion. The model, perhaps, for an effective liberal Party?   

Posted in Op-eds | Also tagged and | 5 Comments
Advert

Recent Comments

  • Judy Abel
    @David agree with those points. There are no checks and balances when it comes to how capital operates in our markets....
  • David Allen
    "I think you could claim that a dogmatic insistence on a single ownership model has failed." Fair point, up to a point. Certainly - as I mentioned - nationa...
  • Mick Taylor
    There seems to be a schizophrenic approach by our party when talking about high streets. On the one hand people bemoan the decline of high streets and on the ot...
  • David Raw
    @ theakes "But we have to attack them"...... But that assumes anybody is even listening to the Lib Dems these days............. Most of the time there seems ...
  • Jana
    I’m not sure about what is taught south of the border but most Scottish pupils are taught politics and some international relations as part of their upper pri...