Remaking Politics
“I do not believe in struggling to take power, but to build it.”Hugo BlancoGrowth is what everyone wants. Apparently. So we can pay the banks the interest on the money…
Fixing and Faking
“What is happening to Stonehenge does not reflect the increasing accord that is supposed to come from progress and rationality.”Christopher Chippindale, Stonehenge Complete, 1985Last month, £10 million of lottery money…
Six Months
That’s all it took. All it took for the Coalition’s true programme to be made manifest. It talks the talk about decentralisation and localism but does it walk the walk?We…
Non Homo Insula Est
No man is an island. The famous words of John Donne, Dean of St Paul’s in London. Written in English, translated here into Latin.Why Latin? A cloud of celebrities ranging…
The Pageant of Death
“I have said that we must base our future thinking on the acceptance that nation states, individual, independent nations, can no longer really seriously influence the way in which the…
Playing the Poll Card
"Be you never so high, the Law is above you."Dr Thomas Fuller, 1733 (and others)No sooner had Phil Woolas been stripped of his Parliamentary seat than politicians and the media…
Constituencies & Contrasts
In England, there are two kinds of Parliamentary election. We elect MPs to Westminster using First-Past-The-Post and MEPs to Brussels/Strasbourg using the D’Hondt regional list system.One would think that arguments…
Remember, Remember
Certain MPs – and former MPs – who voted for the conquest of Iraq are likely to seek extra security after their names were again publicised on the Internet yesterday.We…
Good Works, Bad Shouldn’t
"Þæt is nu hraðost to secganne, þæt ic wilnode weorðfullice to libbanne þa hwile þe ic lifede, and æfter minum life þæm monnum to læfanne þe æfter me wæren min…
The Rotten Parliament
The campaign to allow MPs to continue to represent real communities, shaped by geography, history and culture, has a growing following. It even has its own Facebook page.The so-called ‘Conservative’…