“You never change things by fighting the existing reality. To change something, build a new model that makes the old model obsolete.”The quote is attributed to Buckminster Fuller. Another variation on the theme is that new ideas don’t triumph by changing opinions; they triumph because those holding the old ideas die out and those holdingContinueContinue reading “Our Three Europes”
Tag Archives: UKIP
Cider House Rules II
We don’t often get to discuss the politics of cider. Politicians are usually smart enough to leave cider alone. But it did make the headlines this week, with news of changes in EU rules that could have a devastating effect on small producers. This, of course, is the opposite of what should be happening, evenContinueContinue reading “Cider House Rules II”
Useful Idiots?
This week saw a rally at Westminster in support of housebuilding. There’s no denying the heartache if you’re not adequately housed, but many demanding a cull of our countryside are being dupedby those who stand to benefit financially from a yet-more-bricks-and-mortar solution. There’s no sound case for adding to our housing stock if we can’tContinueContinue reading “Useful Idiots?”
Wanted: an NHS
“The power which causes the several portions of the plant to help each other, we call life… intensity of life is also intensity of helpfulness — completeness of depending of each part on all the rest. The ceasing of this help is what we call corruption.” John Ruskin, Modern Painters, Volume 5 (1860)Cornish academic BernardContinueContinue reading “Wanted: an NHS”
Choosing to be Beggars
Last week, an environmental coalition – Butterfly Conservation, the League Against Cruel Sports, the Mammal Society, the Ramblers, the RSPB and the Wildlife Trusts – held a ‘Rally for Nature’ at the Palace of Westminster. Why? To lobby MPs ahead of the next election, reminding them of how important nature is. MPs need reminding. BecauseContinueContinue reading “Choosing to be Beggars”
Frying-Pans & Fires
With the dust now settled on the Euro-elections, let’s take a look at who will be speaking for Wessex in Brussels and Strasbourg. Well, not just Wessex. We have 16 MEPs, 6 of them shared with Cornwall and the other 10 shared with just a few of the more peripheral parts of the Londonian region.ContinueContinue reading “Frying-Pans & Fires”
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”
Negatives, Positives
An election with 14 candidates was always going to squeeze our share of the vote, making in-depth comparisons difficult. So we don’t view our 30 votes in quite as negative a light as you might suppose. Larger parties than us, that have polled much more in other circumstances, can limp in too; the English DemocratsContinueContinue reading “Negatives, Positives”
Constitutional Engineering: Fail
British parties of the far Right are often treated as interchangeable. No-one on the Left can be really bothered to explore what nuances separate them. But the differences can be quite significant. Clearly, the English Democrats want a centralised England, having given up any hope of a re-centralised Britain: they’re a rearguard party that regardsContinueContinue reading “Constitutional Engineering: Fail”
Whose Europe?
“Every step forward is preceded by a suppression; every reform by the exposure of some abuse; every new idea is born because of the inadequacy of the old concepts.”Pierre-Joseph Proudhon (1809-1865)Please don’t call us Europhiles. Please don’t call us Eurosceptics. We won’t be driven into any Manichaean pigeonholes. We might perhaps settle for ‘Euro-wary’, attentiveContinueContinue reading “Whose Europe?”
Wessex Regionalists 