Category: Current Affairs
-
Election Thoughts [2] | The Choice to Control our Own Lives?
In the previous post, I argued that the ‘choice’ agenda that all parties are keen to promote is actually something of a fallacy. Genuine choice of political representation in the kind of democracy we have is pretty much an illusion, and choice in delivery of services like health and education would actually require surplus capacity,…
-
Election Thoughts [1] | The Fallacy of ‘Choice’
One of the most-commonly words used in this election season is ‘choice.’ The whole of the democratic system relies on people having a genuine choice for who they vote for, but beyond that, the various parties – and the Conservative party in particular – are keen to promote a ‘choice’ agenda in their manifestos too…
-
If There’s One Single Issue You Should Vote On, It’s This…
So the General Election that we all knew was coming is finally out in the open. How should you vote? How should we decide how to vote? I think that there is a single issue that we should all be asking our prospective representatives about: income equality. If you get a chance to speak to…
-
The Robin Hood Tax: Perpetuating the Problem by Taxing the Thief
Interesting video with Bill Nighy talking about the ‘Robin Hood Tax‘ that would see 50p raked off all financial transactions that didn’t include members of the public. This would raise around £200bn globally each year which could be put into projects helping the poor: Obviously raising money to help the poor is a wonderful idea,…
-
The Monk and The Academic: How to be Happy
Interesting piece in The Times yesterday about the meeting of two of the happiest men in the world. Well, one of them – the monk Matthieu Ricard – is apparently the happiest (on average, surely – I doubt he’s ever been happier than me when United won the Champions League in the last minute of…