Author Archives: WR_admin

Switched On?

Predictions of the death of the Internet seem premature, though not wholly implausible.  There is no doubt that it constitutes a heavy drain on energy supplies but it also undoubtedly saves energy in facilitating transactions online that reduce the need to travel.  A full energy ‘balance sheet’ of the existing and potential costs and benefitsContinueContinue reading “Switched On?”

Tunnel Vision

“You can’t play politics with our prosperity.” With these words, Transport Secretary Patrick McLoughlin tried this week to push the lid down hard on the HS2 debate.  You must do what corporate capital wants.  Or else.  It looks like we’re all in transition from evidence-based policy to policy-based evidence, and it’s a worldwide trend.It’s widelyContinueContinue reading “Tunnel Vision”

Serfs For Sale?

“Sell not virtue to purchase wealth, nor liberty to purchase power.” Benjamin Franklin, Poor Richard’s Almanack (1738)If you’re going to keep on repeating lies, the risk isn’t that others will start to believe them.  It’s that you’ll start to believe them yourself and end up trapped inside them.Thatcherites are now in that position, confronted byContinueContinue reading “Serfs For Sale?”

Light Relief

Any fool can do irony.  It takes an Eton education to do irony on the grand scale and get away with it. David Cameron’s regime announced with glee today that a multi-billion pound nuclear hazard, turning out radioactive waste that no-one knows how to manage sustainably, is to be built on the north coast ofContinueContinue reading “Light Relief”

Stampede at the Sales

MK Leader Dick Cole bloggedthis week about the sell-off of Royal Mail, which has now taken place despite the opposition of two-thirds of the public.  (Unsurprisingly, the strongest support for the sale came from an urban environment, London, but even there it was little more than a quarter of those polled.) He pointed out notContinueContinue reading “Stampede at the Sales”

Growing Into What?

Labour announced last month that it will return to its bad old ways with a vengeance. Towns and cities will be given ‘the right to grow’, that is, the right to build over adjoining land. Neighbouring areas that resist will simply be stamped upon.It appears that Ed Miliband really is thick enough not to realiseContinueContinue reading “Growing Into What?”

No Federal Finale

Officially, the Coalition doesn’t do regions. Much play is made of the apparent deconstruction of the institutional legacy heaped up by successive governments. Yet too much remains in place for the spin to be taken seriously. The regions still exist for statistical purposes and for European elections and are still used by numerous organisations, bothContinueContinue reading “No Federal Finale”

Thin Red Line In The Sand

In our massively over-centralised world, subsidiarity mainly means moving power back towards the individual and to the most local communities wherever possible.  But not every time.  It’s also about co-operation in place of competition.  It’s always about doing things at the right level, the smallest level that works.  The level at which global security worksContinueContinue reading “Thin Red Line In The Sand”

Ins & Outs

So, what is the Conservative Party’s settled policy on Europe?  Not one to be written without a regular check over the shoulder in the direction of Monsieur Farage.  Expect many more gimmicks like the one we saw recently: in effect taking scarecrows on wheels around the inner cities, urging illegal immigrants to get the messageContinueContinue reading “Ins & Outs”