Category: Politics
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Christiania | The Violence of Heaven [ 2 ]
Violence of Heaven [ 1 ] I opened the first post with the story of Christiania – a ‘micro-nation’ in the centre of Copenhagen that has been going since the early 1970s. Seen as a ‘social experiment’ by the generally left-leaning governments of Denmark, it is now under increasing threat from more right-wing administrations, as…
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Christiania | The Violence of Heaven [ 1 ]
As promised yesterday, a post about a brilliant piece by Porter Fox in this month’s Believer about the micro-nation ‘Christiania.’ Christiania began when a group of Danes broke down fences to a long-abandoned military base in the centre of Copenhagen and started to use some of the space as a playground for their children. Covering…
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Thoughts on a New Government
(Brown writes his letter wishing David Cameron well – from a great set of photos on his last hours here) The waiting is over. We have a new government, what some are calling the ‘ConDems’. My feelings are mixed. They range from huge disappointment and concern at the return of a Conservative administration, to relief…
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Working With The Other | Living in Coalition
I’m really excited about the new book coming out in the next few weeks, especially as the over-arching theme of engaging the other is so current. British politics has historically been about governing by majority. One party gets enough seats to be able to vote through whatever legislation it sees fit. Rebellions are uncommon; the…
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Clegg’s Political Dilemma: Involvement or Commitment | Ham and Eggs
Great cartoon from Steve Bell as usual. The question now is, what should Clegg do? Having seen support for the Liberal Democrats deflate at the polling stations more quickly than a balloon in a pin factory, he now faces the most important political decision of his life. Does he trust the Tories enough to believe…
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Spare Any Change? | ‘I Warn You Not to be Poor’
Change is the word you’ll have heard most around this election. It’s actually become a fetish – something that people are obsessed with, without rationally thinking exactly what the kind of change it is that they want – as I blogged about in a series of posts beginning here, and as Bill Bailey has put…