Conservatism
Not a bad philosophical start
I agree with this post and with these 2 minutes from twitter: (For info -the Baroness of Yardley was the previous Labour Education Secretary, Estelle Morris.) Jess Phillips is often criticised for her lack of philosophy, and a Tory-like failure of systematic reasoning. This is her at her best – emotional engagement with people’s needs.... Read more
‘Better things aren’t possible’
I enjoyed this – old as it is, which I’ve just encountered: It set me thinking that really the journey to understand money is also a journey to show that better things are possible and especially with today’s narrow thinking, also affordable, when ‘affordability’ is so often used to shut down further discussion. Understanding money... Read more
The UK needs European Free trade for its Balance of Payments
Although this original post may be a bit aged I came across it for the first time recently and in spite of being not convinced of its core point, nonetheless, it may have something to say on the balance of payments. I have given time to the author before and like him more because he... Read more
Racing to the bottom…
This from journalist, Ash Sarkar on the recent ‘race’ report, I thought was worth watching: I thought a particularly good point was her conclusion on identity politics. She points out that there is never, ever any resolution in identity politics because we are who we are and cannot actually change it. That is a big... Read more
Macron thinks, Johnson doesn’t
According to the FT – and amazingly to me: President Emmanuel Macron is moving ahead with a plan to close [the] Ecole Nationale d’Administration (ENA). Macron himself was a previous student of that same ENA, which was started by De Gaulle in 1945. It is in effect a post graduate school for administrators and many... Read more
Bankers’ currency and Conservative deceptions
I enjoyed Jim Osborne‘s comment mentioning what he called “bankers’ currency”. Clearly bankers’ currency is what all currency now is. The only ‘recent’ example of currency that was not (but was in fact the Treasury’s rather than the bankers’) is the short-lived Bradbury’s. It showed that we do not actually need the bankers to produce... Read more
The Big Illusion…
Anne Rovan is Europe correspondent for the conservative French newspaper ‘Le Figaro’ and has just tweeted: Only just over a month to go… I have to wonder whether Brexiter Redwood… will get his (in this case eminently reasonable) wish before Barnier spills the beans….... Read more
Democratic power?
Tony Benn used to say that Democracy transferred power from the wallet to the ballot. The Tories have succeeded in transferring it back again. They work for their funders. They have literally no other ideas – big or small. Their only big idea, Thatcherism, has turned out not to have worked that well, so keeping... Read more
Does this seem currently rather appropriate?
This was of course a trailer from the Corbyn era prior to the lost election. In my view, then as now, it is still a sentiment that is entirely appropriate. Perhaps Conservative techniques are still working and invoking identity politics will keep us opposing each other rather than the real problem. Or, actually, we need... Read more