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Thucydides or Aeschylus?
Ambrose Evans-Pritchard, who is as Eurosceptic as you would expect a former Telegraph Europe correspondent to be, has a piece comparing the treatment of the Greeks to that of the unfortunate Melians massacred at the hands of the Athenian army … Continue reading
Posted in Commentary
Tagged Aeschylus, athens, austerity, EU, Europe, greece, growth
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Media regulation: Members of the Fourth Estate are not exempt from the law
This post is part of our media regulation project, and comes from Charman-Anderson.com. After the phone- and email-hacking and the illegal payments to police and other public officials scandal currently engulfing the British press the key question is, What needs to … Continue reading
@fhollande (hearts) Gov1.0
I’m not sure whether political manifestos really describe the state of a nation’s politics, but they give strong hints. Reading François Hollande’s “60 commitments for France“, it’s a shame to see no echo of the discussions about new models for … Continue reading
Posted in Commentary
Tagged Europe, france, François Hollande, gov20, Nicolas Sarkozy, public service models, reform
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Stephen Hester as the AntiEuro
My back-of-a-cornflake-packet physics knowledge tells me that matter has a counterpart, called antimatter, and if the two meet, they are annihilated in a burst of energy. It turns out that the Euro and Stephen Hester‘s bonus package have the same … Continue reading
Posted in Commentary
Tagged consistency, Europe, Hester, Journalism, Royal Bank of Scotland, Stephen Hester
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Media Regulation: Case for a Press Ombudsman
I resume this post on press regulation warily [the first part is here]. After all, no less an authority than the editor of the Daily Mirror informed Lord Leveson’s enquiry that bloggers are cowboys. Perhaps, instead of sharing ideas we … Continue reading
Media regulation. December roundtable. Personal view
In December I had the pleasure of chairing a Democratic Society debate on media regulation. Contributors were Kevin Anderson, Kathryn Corrick, Douglas White, and Anthony Zacharzewski. This is part of a series of events, including future discussions, blogs and online debates, … Continue reading
Posted in Commentary, Media regulation, Projects
Tagged Leveson Inquiry, News International, news of the world, Press Complaints Commission
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Scotland: Law v. Politics
This row over the Scottish referendum is going to be fascinating. From a wonkish perspective, I almost hope that they don’t settle it before it goes to court. It’s a classic “law vs. politics” clash, as you can tell from … Continue reading
Posted in Commentary
Tagged Alex Salmond, Constitutional Reform, David Cameron, devolution, independence, Scotland, Scottish Parliament, SNP, Winnie Ewing
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Referendums: still not democratic
Another day, another proof that referendums are the tool of the powerful, not of the people. Today’s comes from David Cameron. The Guardian reports that he’s trying to force a Scottish independence referendum earlier than the SNP would like to … Continue reading
Posted in Commentary
Tagged Cameron, constitution, EU, independence, parliament, referendum, referendum lock, salmond, Scotland, unionism
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Look! He done a typo!
The fact that a typo in a tweet made the front page of the Sun and a big piece on the inside of the Times is just another waypoint on the media’s long slither down the slippery slope. It wasn’t too … Continue reading
Posted in Commentary
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If Social Justice™ were a breed of cat…
Oh, here’s a hideous survey. It invites you to tell the DWP what you think about Social Justice – the capital letters are clearly important. On the second (final) page of the survey you can opt in to hear more about … Continue reading →