Here’s your starter for ten in our Saturday slot where we throw up an idea or thought for debate…
The tragic killing of six and injuries to thirteen others, including Congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords, have received heavy coverage in the UK media, not only in response to the shooting itself but also following up the story subsequently. Yet other recent political deaths from countries around the world have received, at most, very little media coverage in the UK.
There are partial explanations – such as the murdered Nigerian politician being a local government figure rather than a national figure and the
Here’s your starter for ten in our Saturday slot where we throw up an idea or thought for debate…
Directly-elected Mayors were introduced by Labour to a very mixed reception. Now the idea is back again with the Government pushing for more, arguing that direct accountability of an individual makes for better decision-making and more meaningful democracy.
Here’s your starter for ten in our Saturday slot where we throw up an idea or thought for debate…
Bonus for bankers are in the news once again, with talks involving the banks not yet reaching any agreement and with Deputy Prime Minister Nick Clegg keeping up the political pressure, telling the Financial Times:
“The banks should not be under any illusion this government cannot stand idly by. It is wholly untenable to have millions of people making sacrifices in their living standards, only to see the banks getting away scot-free…”
Mr Clegg, the son of a banker, said that he wanted
Here’s your starter for ten in our Saturday slot where we throw up an idea or thought for debate…
Key party committees such as the Federal Executive and the Federal Policy Committee have a large block of members elected in a postal ballot every two years by the party’s federal conference representatives.* These directly elected members sit alongside committee members such as MPs elected by the Parliamentary Party in the Commons.
The arguments in favour of having federal conference representatives rather than party members as the electorate have tended to focus on practicality (the cost would be much higher to have all …
Here’s your starter for ten in our Saturday slot where we throw up an idea or thought for debate…
With the news that Ed Miliband wants to give the public a share of the votes in future Labour leadership elections, and with the Conservative Party already having run several open primaries in which the public could vote for Parliamentary candidates, the Liberal Democrats are currently the only one of the three main parties looking to keep such party elections in the hands of party members only.
Should the Liberal Democrats stick to that position or should the rules for leader and/or …
Here’s your starter for ten in our Saturday slot where we throw up an idea or thought for debate…
In his recently published book, 22 Days in May, David Laws writes,
The coalition needs to redefine what fairness means. Fairness cannot mean just maintaining people above an arbitrary income line, whatever their personal circumstances. Fairness means giving people the educational and employment opportunities to ensure that they are not dependent on an over-mighty state and trapped in dead-end lives.
To promote defence exports consistent with export control criteria; as part of a defence diplomacy programme to strengthen British influence and help support British industry and jobs.
Should the MoD have that as a goal? And if it does, should it fourth of the seven? Over to you…
Here’s your starter for ten in our Saturday slot where we throw up an idea or thought for debate…
An easy question to ask, a rather harder one to answer. The news during the week about plans to change child benefit has seen many stories in the media about people on well above average income who are described as “middle class” rather than, say, “rich”.
Does this matter? Does “middle class” imply “not rich”? And is it not about money anyway (a point Millennium Elephant forcefully made earlier in the week)?
Here’s your starter for ten in our Saturday slot where we throw up an idea or thought for debate…
I was struck by this recent article by the Economist’s political columnist Bagehot, headlined When progressive actually means misanthropic, reflecting on the Lib Dem conference, and specifically the debate on free schools.
Highlighting that, while the party may have lacked power at Westminster, the Lib Dems have for decades now been a major player in local government, it observes that:
… local government occupies much of the mental space taken up by national politics in the Labour and Conservative parties. … more
Here’s your starter for ten in our Saturday slot where we throw up an idea or thought for debate:
Class has always been an intangible concept in the UK.
While most countries would define it quite simply as a function of income, in our class-hungover country there are all manner of other factors: state or privately educated, your profession, whether you have a degree, your postcode, your family circumstances (‘where you came from’), even your accent. So while carpenters and plumbers may well earn more than university lecturers there’s no doubt which of those would be regarded as the middle-class occupation.
Here’s your starter for ten in our Saturday slot where we throw up an idea or thought for debate:
Why should a political party restrict itself to fighting public elections? Why not also take part in the myriad of other elections that exist, including those for directors of companies?
Instead of complaining from the sidelines about how a council behaves, we fight elections to change its decisions and methods. The same logic could apply to companies, hospital trusts, housing bodies and may more, all of which – like the bodies we fight elections for – have significant power over communities and individuals.
Here’s your starter for ten in our Saturday slot where we throw up an idea or thought for debate:
In many states in the US people register themselves as “Democrat” or “Republican” (with also various options for “Independent” etc.) when they join the electoral register. These lists can then be used by the parties to hold primaries or caucuses to select candidates, letting only registered supporters of the party to take party. Open primaries* where anyone can vote are also held in some places, but if you only want your party’s supporters to vote in a primary then wrapping registering your …
Here’s your starter for ten as we continue our Saturday slot posing a view for debate:
Lib Dem MEP Chris Davies has recently written to Deputy Prime Minister Nick Clegg renewing his call for British troops to be withdrawn from Afghanistan:
It is very difficult to justify our continued engagement when the reasons for it so often appear contradictory and open to challenge. I suspect one reason why 77% of people in this country tell pollsters that they want our troops out of Afghanistan is because they either do not know what are the objectives for their presence or do not
A simple enough question to pose for today, with the Queen’s Birthday Honours in the news: should honours go to people who have already received wide-spread public acclaim and wealth such as Catherine Zeta Jones or should the honours be reserved for otherwise unrecognised people? Over to you…
After an extended election break, we’re reviving our Saturday slot posing a view for debate:
The election campaign of 2010 will, above all, be remembered for the transformative effect of the television debates, and the breakthrough of Nick Clegg. They were, in the main, substantive discussions in which real policies – and real political differences – were openly debated. But they also re-inforced the impression that British politics is, above all, about personality; and in particular, that the quality politicians need above all is empathy, an ability to connect with the voters they seek to represent.
Empathy is a vital quality of leadership. It is one which is perhaps tipping the balance of opinion in the Labour party against David Miliband, who comes across as less of a listener than his brother and rival, Ed.
But empathy can all too easily tip over into something else: an overly emotional reaction which blinds politicians to sound reason. The moment a politician loses his rag – however understandably, however provoked, however gloriously – is the moment I feel my respect draining away.
I do not want a politician who knows only how to emote. I want a politician with cool, clear, concise judgement. Our leaders are faced with umpteen improbably tricky decisions before breakfast: they cannot afford to waste their energies as the mood takes them.
Perhaps the ultimate exemplar of the non-emoting politician happens also to be the world’s most powerful leader, President Obama. Yet he has come in for criticism in recent days from the Washington media for failing to show sufficient anger at BP, forcing Obama to declare himself somewhat falsely ‘furious’ (while reasonably pointing out he wasn’t hired to yell at people):
Here’s your starter for ten as we continue our new Saturday slot posing a view for debate:
In the lively discussion about homeopathy and placebos following an earlier op-ed piece several people made comments about treatments which rely purely on the placebo effect such as: “If a placebo works and is safe and cheap, why on earth should we stop funding it?”
The more general issue of placebos was raised by Lynne Featherstone in an op-ed back in early 2008:
The placebo effect is seen when people are given treatment, such as pills, where the psychological impact of thinking that the
By Stephen Tall
| Sat 27th February 2010 - 8:15 am
Here’s your starter for ten as we continue our new Saturday slot posing a view for debate:
All liberals will happily sign up to the concept of free speech. But the practise of it often makes us uneasy. JS Mill summed up the dilemma by asserting that while all opinions should be aired, one can’t “shout ‘fire’ in a crowded theatre”. In other words, freedom of speech must be tempered by individual responsibility. The inevitable question then arises: who should exercise that responsibility: the individual, or should it be regulated by the state in some way?
Here’s your starter for ten for our Saturday slot posing a view for debate:
Although it is estimated that no more than 2,000 people in France wear a burka, it has become a hot topic of political debate:
A parliamentary commission proposed a ban on the garment in all public services facilities, including transport.
The commission’s report stops short of recommending a complete public ban on the head-to-toe covering, which conceals the face, wanted by many politicians. Instead, it calls for those wearing the garment to be denied access to hospitals, buses, welfare offices and all other public facilities. (FT)
By Stephen Tall
| Sat 13th February 2010 - 7:45 am
Here’s your starter for ten as we experiment with a new Saturday slot posing a view for debate:
Belief in equality is, as the preamble to the Lib Dems’ constitutions states, one of the fundamental values of the party. But, as with all values, equality can mean different things to different people.
There has long been tension between liberals who believe the role of government is to aim for equality of opportunity for everyone, and liberals who believe government must promote equality of outcomes. The former will tend to stress the importance of education as the chief means by which individuals …
Here’s your starter for ten as we experiment with a new Saturday slot posing a view for debate:
Here’s what David Marquand had to say in a recent issue of the New Statesman:
The truth is that the left commentariat’s default position – social permissiveness combined with economic regulation; toughness towards bankers, but softness towards cannabis hawkers – was always incoherent and has now become disastrous. Of course, the right’s alternative – economic permissiveness combined with social regulation – is equally incoherent. But for the left to rely on that kind of yah-boo retort only deepens its current malaise. After all,
Here’s your starter for ten as we experiment with a Saturday slot posing a view for debate:
For the last hundred years the big organizational question has been whether any given task was best taken on by the state, directing the effort in a planned way, or by businesses competing in a market. This debate was based on the universal and unspoken supposition that people couldn’t simply self-assemble; the choice between markets and managed effort assumed there was no third alternative. Now there is. Our electronic networks are enabling novel forms of collective action, enabling the creation of collaborative groups that
Here’s your starter for ten as we experiment with a new Saturday slot posing a view for debate:
Disdainful comments about political motivations and ideological fixations abound. But what Britain needs is more ideology, not less. Because it’s having a core of ideological beliefs that gives those in power a plan for action that is more than simply responding day to day to events or taking on board completely the agendas, assumptions and perspectives of those running the machinery of government. Ideology provides a model that can make different ideas hang together in a coherent whole that is more than the …
Here’s your starter for ten as we experiment with a new Saturday slot posing a view for debate:
The enthusiasm across the political spectrum for using choice to raise standards in public services is misplaced because:
For many public services, it’s vital to get the service right first time – for everyone. Children only get to go through school once. You don’t want to discover after a botched operation that you should have chosen a different surgeon.
Choice requires surplus capacity to be meaningful – but it’s hard enough to fund minimum capacity in public services without also building in surplus capacity.
Here’s your starter for ten as we experiment with a new Saturday slot posing a view for debate:
Online discussion and interactivity works best when it is amongst people of common outlooks and shared assumptions, as that is what protects against it drowning in flames, drive-by verbal graffiti and point scoring rather than point development. But that means it works best when people are huddling together in communities of the like-minded. Such groups of like-minded don’t make for good political discussion or debate as they all agree on too much and don’t pay much attention to the occasional dissenting interloper.
Simon Costain I'm guessing around a thousand high net worth individuals are resident on the Isle of Man for tax purposes, though others suggest up to 3,000
Low earners on ...
David Wright While Trump's "gift of the license to manufacture Patriot air defence missiles" is welcome, it won't stop a single Russian missile aimed at Ukraine this year or...
Matt Wardman Thanks for the piece, Tom.
I tend to disagree on the NATO summit. Listening to serious reports (my goto since February 2022 has been the Telegraph's Ukraine ...
theakes Considerable concern in Democratic circles that Trump will call the coming election rigged, cancel the States results won by the opposition and then impose mart...
Peter Martin @ Roland,
I'm not sure I understand your comment. Every company which is registered for VAT can reclaim VAT on purchased items. The question is whether VAT s...
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