Mud, Blood & Poppies

Last month we commented, with due acidity, on David Cameron’s £50m plan for a great national festival to mark the centenary of the Great War. Marking the anniversaries of momentous events is not in itself a bad idea. But in this case there are three things wrong with its implementation.The first is the political agenda ofContinue reading "Mud, Blood & Poppies"

No Heritage Soon

Where did the inspiration come from for our National Health Service? Historians have a habit, given that Nye Bevan was a Welshman, to look to Wales, to the miners’ and metalworkers’ mutual aid schemes at Tredegar and elsewhere.Wessex has at least as good a claim. The Mechanics’ Institute at Swindon, opened in 1855 and paidContinue reading "No Heritage Soon"

Seizing Power

Those old enough to remember the world before it went completely mad may fondly recall nationalisation as an inspirational idea incompetently implemented. Good, in theory, because it allowed democracy to be extended into the field of economics, so that choices can be determined by intelligent debate rather than by a mindless love of money. Bad,Continue reading "Seizing Power"

Keep Calm And Cut It Down

So Andrew Mitchell has at last resigned over his altercation with a police officer in London’s Downing Street. Those who battled in vain to defend him helpfully stressed how stressful the job of helping to run the country is just at this moment.Then why not make it less stressful by spreading the workload? Alex SalmondContinue reading "Keep Calm And Cut It Down"

The Democracy Haters

“He did not know her name, but he knew that she worked in the Fiction Department. Presumably – since he had sometimes seen her with oily hands and carrying a spanner – she had some mechanical job on one of the novel-writing machines.”George Orwell, Nineteen Eighty-FourOrwell’s technicians at Minitrue work for David Cameron these days,Continue reading "The Democracy Haters"

Right Royal Ruination

Prince Charles likes to let his mother’s Ministers know his views. In at least 27 letters to seven Government departments in just seven months, many of the letters being “particularly frank”. To release these letters would damage the Monarchy. And there again, since we now know this, the Monarchy is damaged anyway and the clamourContinue reading "Right Royal Ruination"

The Challenges of Paradox

Not a Doctor Who adventure. Just a series of thoughts for the day, to keep those sociologists, economists and politicians puzzling.1. Couples who care most about rising population have the smallest families, abdicating the future to those who care least.2. Countries that believe privatisation will restore national pride sell their assets to the foreign governmentsContinue reading "The Challenges of Paradox"

The Evil Empire

Incredibly, in the USA it’s actually a crime to use basic computer skills to access military information that isn’t adequately protected. We say ‘information’ rather than ‘secrets’ because to call something a secret and not put in place the means to keep it so is wishful thinking and a little bit laughable.Laughable? It’s very seriousContinue reading "The Evil Empire"

Defending the Defensible

For it's Tommy this, an' Tommy that, an' "Chuck him out, the brute!"But it's "Saviour of 'is country" when the guns begin to shoot.Rudyard Kipling, Tommy (1890)Never in the field of current affairs have there been so many unflattering headlines about the military as we have witnessed this weekend. Marines accused of murder. Retired topContinue reading "Defending the Defensible"