John Craig
Associate
John is Director of The Innovation Exchange, which works to grow innovation from the third sector
at 10:43pm
on Monday, 31st January 2005
Or at least, not to me. There was a guy on Radio 4's PM programme this evening (54 mins in) talking about Oliver Letwin's personal support, along with a more predictable group of MPs, for Conscience, a group campaigning to allow conscientious objectors to require that none of the tax they pay is used for military purposes. His argument was that military action, unlike other government decisions, is 'a question of conscience not of politics'. This is an interesting extension of the idea of 'not in my name' ' the anti-war slogan that emphasised individual sovereignty over collective responsibility. As politics responds to demands for personalisation, I for one hope it will do so in ways that don't obviate us from at least some responsibility for the decisions our governments take. In fact, while good old-fashioned British indifference has a long and fairly distinguished history, I'm all for the national apology our Monarchies collection once suggested.
Or at least, not to me. There was a guy on Radio 4's PM programme this evening (54 mins in) talking about Oliver Letwin's personal support, along with a more predictable group of MPs, for Conscience, a group campaigning to allow conscientious objectors to require that none of the tax they pay is used for military purposes. His argument was that military action, unlike other government decisions, is 'a question of conscience not of politics'. This is an interesting extension of the idea of 'not in my name' ' the anti-war slogan that emphasised individual sovereignty over collective responsibility. As politics responds to demands for personalisation, I for one hope it will do so in ways that don't obviate us from at least some responsibility for the decisions our governments take. In fact, while good old-fashioned British indifference has a long and fairly distinguished history, I'm all for the national apology our Monarchies collection once suggested.
LOGIN to add comments
Comments