Trotsky in 1938 defined the ‘Third Camp’ as the result of ‘the fetishism of two camps’ which ‘would give way to a third, independent, sovereign camp of the proletariat, that camp upon which, in point of fact, the future of humanity depends.’ The attempt of the USSR and the USA to divide the world into [...]
Filed under: afghanistan, defence, deficit reduction, democracy, identity on June 21st, 2011 | No Comments »
It’s easy to be seduced by the prospect of change and fairness. After all, who wouldn’t say “Yes to Fairer Votes”, as supporters of the Alternative Vote arrogantly exhort us to do? Are we really expected to believe that all supporters of First Past the Post are deliberately resisting greater fairness? Fairness, of course, depends [...]
Filed under: constitution, democracy, electoralreform, ukpolitics on May 4th, 2011 | No Comments »
In 21st Century Britain, monarchy is faring rather better than democracy. As public trust in politicians sinks to new, unprecedented lows, the Royal Family is enjoying a weird and immensely tedious resurgence in popularity. I don’t know if these things are correlated. But, either way, they are pretty alarming signs of the times.
The upshot [...]
Filed under: democracy, electoralreform, jonathanbirch, ukpolitics on April 21st, 2011 | No Comments »
Yes, it was original, yes, it was interesting, but did it tell me anything new? Absolutely not. The UK’s very first leaders’ TV debate was, for me at least, something of a flop and I cannot understand the great enthusiasm it seems to have generated, particularly in favour of Nick Clegg. If the debate served [...]
Filed under: davidcameron, democracy, gordonbrown, nickclegg, ukpolitics on April 16th, 2010 | No Comments »
As the judicial review of the proposed extradition of Gary McKinnon continues, his ever-growing band of supporters claim that the 43 year old should not be extradited on human rights grounds. Not only are they fighting a losing battle, Mr McKinnon should be extradited.
Mr McKinnon has become something of a cause celebre for the right [...]
Filed under: clarepoliticsnews, democracy, terrorism on January 11th, 2010 | 1 Comment »
Creative Commons licensed photograph courtesy of Flickr user michaelramallah.
The recent sit-in at the Cambridge University Law Faculty excited a range of emotions: passion and devotion to their cause on the behalf of the protestors, leading to an exhausted fatigue as the conflict reached its climax, to the evident curiosity and frustration of many of us [...]
Filed under: arabisraeliconflict, democracy on January 30th, 2009 | 1 Comment »
…this guy would be dead by now. Of course, if Bush were Saddam, he’d never have tried his luck. But he knew his action would be interpreted as an act of political dissent — in a country where dissent is now allowed. He may serve a jail term, but it seems far more likely that [...]
Filed under: afghanistan, al qaeda, clarepoliticsnews, democracy, humanrights, ideas, iraq, jonathanbirch, society, uspolitics on December 15th, 2008 | No Comments »
The polls were right all along — America has elected Barack Obama, and proved itself not to be a hateful, bigoted nation. I hope anyone who secretly expected a racist “Bradley effect” to propel John McCain to the White House is now hanging their head in shame: McCain won an honest 47% and bowed out [...]
Filed under: barackobama, democracy, election2008, johnmccain, jonathanbirch, republican, uspolitics on November 5th, 2008 | No Comments »
Photograph courtesy of Flickr user shazam791.
Of all the bizarre and interesting features of the 2008 US presidential election, here’s one you may not have noticed: it’s the first time both tickets have been topped by a serving senator. It guarantees that America’s 44th president will be the third to assume the job from a Senate [...]
Filed under: barackobama, democracy, election2008, johnmccain, jonathanbirch, uspolitics on October 8th, 2008 | No Comments »
Why did Hillary Clinton win New Hampshire? One answer is, perhaps, that the polls were wrong all along. Hillary is the candidate registered Democrat voters are embarrassed to admit they support, but support her they do. Barack Obama is the media darling; Hillary is the prosaic, sensible, tactical choice. She does not win votes with [...]
Filed under: barackobama, democracy, election2008, hillaryclinton, uspolitics on January 15th, 2008 | 8 Comments »
