Micropayments, micropayments - wherefore art thou , micropayments?
I'm intrigued recently by this piece by the founder of Politico - Jim VandeHeiIt's sensible in that it predicts the death of clickbait (praise be!) and the rise of more interesting, well researched...
View ArticleClothes maketh the woman?
I was struck today by the reporting on a focus group in Nuneaton - with a fair amount reflecting people's views of Jeremy Corbyn and most interestingly, their view of his clothes.It seems the voters...
View ArticleWhy I'm voting Remain
I'm voting Remain in the EU referendum and here's why1. I want the ability to live and work abroad for myself and my family. Selfish, maybe. But I also think the flipside of that is others should be...
View ArticleMy Britain is the Britain of Pied Beauty. Give me my country back.
Gerard Manley Hopkins wrote my favourite poem, Pied Beauty. "GLORY be to God for dappled things— For skies of couple-colour as a brinded cow; For rose-moles all in stipple upon trout that...
View ArticlePost-fact politics and the end of stability
I haven't written a blog post since the referendum because, to be quite honest, I've not really known what to say.It feels like the end of an epoch, but how can I say that, have never seen the end of...
View ArticleImagine there's no countries - how do we get there from here?
There's been some astonishingly good analysis on the Brexit decision in the last couple of days, here are some of my reflections.I'm struck by the fact, as the IFS outlines, that the government wants...
View ArticleCorbyn's not for turning, neither are the Hard Brexiteers
People like consistency. I think this helps explains Corbynmania amongst his supporters in the Labour party, and also to an extent Brexit.I think that because Corbyn refuses to compromise, he engenders...
View ArticleShould it be so difficult to leave the EU?
Someone said to me the other day that an institution so hard to leave as the EU was wrong. I wasn’t so sure, as I thought of several associations that are hard to leave – i.e. hard to leave or not take...
View ArticleWhatever happened to Social Democracy in the UK?
I'm trying to observe a vow of silence about The Opposition Leader Who Shall Not Be Named (from now on referred to as TOLWSNBN) , as quite frankly I'm bored of talking and writing about him. Today tho,...
View ArticleRelationship counselling and leaving the EU
The divorce analogy for Brexit annoys me because it's simplistic and moreover takes people in odd directions about mid-life crisis and tends to assume Britain is a man as well, for some reason I can't...
View ArticleNot having a Parliamentary vote on Brexit is a mistake....
I think Theresa May's decision not to have a Parliamentary vote on Brexit is a mistake. Firstly, because it means that it's all on her. Without a mandate from Parliament the "bumpy ride" of Brexit is...
View ArticleClik here to view.
The Case for the Single Market : Rights, Economic Direction of Travel and...
It strikes me that both pre and post referendum, those of us who really would have preferred to Remain, are actually failing to properly make the case for doing so.Presuming that we accept the will of...
View ArticleSurviving Brexit : For Generation X and Millennials
As Brexit looks ever more inevitable, it's pretty imperative that as a member of GenX and almost a millennial - I was born in 1979. I have to make sure I'm in the best position to deal with the next...
View ArticleBrexit positive.....
One positive thing about Brexit is we are actually having a debate about our place in the world and what type of immigration we want which I'm not sure many other countries are doing. We will find this...
View ArticleDid a failure of social democracy cause Brexit?
I'm wary of criticising other strands of political thought, because generally they all interest me and have upsides and downsides. However, a number of people seem to have convinced themselves that...
View ArticleOn Only Retweeting Women Of Colour in Black History Month
After seeing a tweet which I now cannot find urging me to only retweet Women of Colour for Black History Month, I tried it out. I learnt: I do not follow enough Women of Colour, so I asked for...
View ArticleI pay for journalism. Here's what I want in return....
I don’t want to link to any of the stuff, but there was a kerfuffle over the weekend on Twitter about journalism and ethics. One senior journalist decided to lay into a political party’s press...
View ArticleBrexit - Free Movement of People Extended - BINO?
I’m wary of putting too much hope in this government, but post Article 50 being triggered, the government seems to be executing a pivot towards policies which seem sensible. Theresa May has indicated...
View ArticleSnap General Election
I thought it best to write a short post about the snap General Election, given I won't be able to write that many posts throughout it. I've got some Open Uni work on the go plus working 4 days a week...
View ArticleHow to Kill a Brexit
I don’t want to make a prediction, because as we all know the volatility of our current political situation and the multi-level constitutional crises that last years Brexit vote brought on leads to a...
View ArticleLiving Lives of Quiet Desperation...
I, like many others, was very struck by the recent YouGov Poll outlining that a majority of over 65 Leave voters think their family losing their jobs is an adequate price to pay for Brexit. God knows...
View ArticleWhat a colossal waste of time Brexit is
My fundamental problem with Brexit is not really that people were lied to in the Referendum or really that the other side "won", though I would rather both of those things hadn't happened. My biggest...
View ArticleEmotions in Politics and Brexit
Today I return to a subject that I have discussed before, that of Emotions in Politics, with some of my previous posts on this subject here, here and hear. However I am interested today in how it...
View ArticleA Very British Brexit?
Perfidious Albion - that's what they call us. Content to say one thing and do another, it's a particularly wounding nickname for a country that considers aspects such as "a gentleman's word is his...
View ArticleThe Politics of Politics
I was interested in this VICE article which is about how the crowds of new Labour Members don't seem that interested in canvassing and going to local party meetingsSome choice quotes include"Existing...
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