How to stop our politicians from thinking for themselves
Loneliness is a killer, but the absence of solitude deadens the mind.
Edited by Peter Franklin
The reverse watermelons of the Labour Party
The Green Party is best thought of as a free-range environment where middle-class liberal lefties can say what they really think.
After the ISIS takeover of northern Iraq, how sure can we be that Saudi Arabia is safe?
Saudi Arabia’s key vulnerability is an ideological environment deliberately created by the Saudi state.
Only a lame-duck can save us from coalition chaos
The rapid formation of the 2010 coalition has lulled us into a false sense of security – next time won’t be so easy
Heresy of the week: Right now, the EU might not be the biggest threat to our national sovereignty
Why do several EU governments – including our own – support the creation of a transnational system of corporate courts?
Talking rubbish: Is litter a class issue?
If litter is a class issue, then it’s also a gender and generational issue – because, judging by its composition, a disproportionate amount is clearly generated by young males
The three-way fight for the future of the Green Belt
We need a way of improving the supply, affordability and quality of new housing. The question is whether loosening the Green Belt is going to achieve that.
The surveillance state is dying, long live the surveillance society
With budgets under pressure, it’s politically easier to take CCTV cameras of our streets than police officers.
Journalists should not control the election debates
To give the broadcasters the power to choose who gets a platform in the single most important event of the election campaign is to grant excessive power to a narrow elite
Heresy of the week: Environmental regulation is not a threat to economic productivity
Environmental regulation – when properly designed – encourages greater efficiency in the use of resources, which is the very stuff of productivity
How ‘easy wealth’ undermines a nation’s ability to innovate its way to prosperity
Natural resources like oil are one kind of easy wealth, but there are other kinds – such as that derived from property speculation.
American liberals can recognise the insanity of the Eurozone, so why can’t their European counterparts do the same?
The single currency creates the conditions that allow – or require – the wrong policies to be implemented at the wrong time in the wrong places.
For a privileged few free speech isn’t just free, it’s subsidised by the state
Broadcasters should make room for as many visibly distinctive points-of-view as possible, but also the counter-arguments
A horrifying possibility – the general election might be quite boring
Three reasons why the political status quo might reassert itself
Heresy of the week: Our politicians will respond strongly to the Paris massacre, but not to protect free speech
The cultivation of hyper-sensitivity is now spreading from the post-modern left to the rest of the political spectrum
