Why Ed Miliband was partly right but can’t do anything about it
Yesterday afternoon, I was idly muttering about Ed Miliband’s speech with one of my colleagues who I think wouldn’t be averse to being described as a proper Newish Labour type. We were discussing the...
View ArticleLet’s liberate Britain’s Muslims
The next time David Cameron meets representatives of the Muslim community and they tell him that the reasons for domestic extremism are that ‘Muslims are angry about British foreign policy’ or that...
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Why good governance secures development
I’ve just got back from Project Umubano in Rwanda (more on the specifics another day). I was part of a team working with local NGOs and charities to build their skills and capacity. A view over Kigali...
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The Victorians, the Liberals and the welfare state
“Protection of the vicious poor involves aggression on the virtuous poor” The words quoted above are those of Herbert Spencer, a prominent Victorian sociologist. If I had read them last week I would...
View ArticleI have the right to choose. So I should also have the right to choose where I...
Many years ago, and very randomly, I took part in a focus group about abortion. I was never terribly sure on what grounds we participants had been selected – we varied in age from late teens to...
View ArticleGay marriage means equal responsibilities
Not everyone is a fan of the Government’s decision to push forward in allowing gay men and women to get married. Roger Helmer, a Conservative MEP, manages to oppose it – miraculously – on both extreme...
View ArticleThe Legal Recognition Of Gay Marriage Is Absolutely The Right Thing To Do
The Government has announced that it is planning to launch a consultation with the aim of legalising gay marriage. It’s a very welcome announcement indeed. The case for gay marriage is clear and it is...
View ArticleDecisions, values and choices
“We can’t save all species under threat, so we must choose, and that won’t be straightforward,” said Jean-Christophe Vié of the International Union for the Conservation of Nature based in Geneva. This...
View ArticleThe City – time to cherish rather than to bash?
Banker bashing has become one of the most popular sports of recent times, politicians of all colours and hue strive to be identified with ‘good’ industries, almost any industry, rather than the City....
View ArticleReviewing our budget properly every ten years
I read somewhere – and have entirely forgotten where – recently a new idea for government spending. That every ten years (say), the government should have a requirement to cut (say) ten per cent from...
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