Tag Archives: professor david runciman

John Marriott

When politics really does take a back seat

By John Marriott | Sat 28th March 2020 - 1:00 pm

Professor David Runciman, writing in the Guardian this week, may be right about a layer of politics being stripped away in this current crisis and, as he describes it, there being “a trade off between personal liberty and collective choice”. Speaking to his nation on the Edison phonograph at the start of World War One, Kaiser Wilhelm II ended his address with the words; “I recognise no parties any more, only Germans”.

Whether we like it or not, what we are now in the middle of is a war; but, as Mr Spock might have said to Captain James Kirk; “not as we know it”. Wilhelm was the head, despite the trappings of democracy, of a basically autocratic regime, which sought to shore up its power by enlisting patriotism, and it worked for a while as it did also in Tsarist Russia, Austria-Hungary and Ottoman Turkey.

I know that there are many people, who suspect the motives of many of those advocating obedience rather than debate; but these are extraordinary times for mankind. As Dr Liam Fox, not someone whose views I generally share, wrote last weekend, we, who have only been around as a species some 200,000 years, are facing an ‘enemy’ that has survived for millions.

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Posted in Op-eds | Also tagged and | 32 Comments
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Recent Comments

  • Ruth Bright
    David you have got to write about some of these things. Can you do a pamphlet? Or am I showing my age here? Maybe a podcast 💛...
  • David Evans
    ... and in addition. Sorry David (Raw). It is all far too late now to stop it. It's too late even for us to make a noticeable national protest about it, so...
  • David Evans
    Hi Steve, Nah, Just one consistent purpose - Labour party advantage. David...
  • Sandy Walkington
    Man is born free and everywhere s/he is in chains… Michal you are an outstanding mayor, proud to have you as my first citizen....
  • Jana
    “ There is no offence of using the wrong lavatory and there never has been” This is correct - an offence would only be committed if there were some malicio...