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Theme : politics
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Respect...For Whom?
When I heard last week about the government's new 'respect' agenda, I felt slightly disconcerted by the response it proposed to young people's so-called 'disrespectful' behaviour. My impression from the children I meet every week at KidsCompany (and many of whom wear 'hoodies') is not that they need more 'anti-social behaviour orders'. They need more of something altogether different - love and care. Anyway, while I was pondering these issues over the weekend, I came across this interview with...
from : juliahuber
16th January 2006
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Doing it his way
The conventional wisdom is wrong; David Cameron does not need a clause IV moment. Where Blair beat up on his party to forge a special relationship with the electorate, Cameron hits the media and politics itself. In yesterday's Observer, he argued for a politics that is 'non-ideological and practical'. So while Blair left us wondering about life after the party, Cameron threatens to leave us searching for a life after politics. Next year has been billed as a return of politics, but I think...
from : johncraig
19th December 2005
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Cameron's numbers game
The pamphlet's author, Nick Boys Smith, will be giving his verdict on Cameron's first outing as leader at Prime Minister's Question Time this evening on the Sky Report.
from : samhintonsmith
7th December 2005
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Why Britain Is Great
Former Demos intern Tristram Hunt (not a lot of people know that) has the cover story of this week's New Statesman on Why Britain Is Great. One point he makes is that we have, "...developed an amorphous but nevertheless peculiarly British culture at whose root is a healthy irreverence towards religious and political authority. We like burning effigies of the Pope, wearing masks of Tony Blair, exposing the peccadillos of pious statesmen. What Islamic ideologues dismiss as western decadence, I...
from : paulmiller
28th July 2005
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New Director for SMF
From ePolitix today:Ann Rossiter has been appointed as the new director of the Social Market Foundation. Think tank chairman David Lipsey said she has "a clear vision, and a strong agenda for extending the SMF's work beyond its recent concentration on public sector reform into, for example, microeconomic policy and deregulation". Rossiter said: "The concept of the social market has never been more relevant to political debate, and the SMF is in a unique position to influence thinking in all of...
from : jameswilsdon
27th July 2005
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Are you drinking what we're drinking?
The Guardian election blog has cottoned on to the idea of election night drinking games. Pick Me Up (which Charlie and I edit occasionally) ran quite an extreme one last week which I imagine they won't be playing at the swanky BBC party tonight. If they do the coverage could get very interesting.
from : paulmiller
5th May 2005
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If you go down to the polls today...
I never did understand the second line, "you're sure of big surprise." If I'm sure about it, how big a surprise can it be? Must be something to do with probabilities and outcomes. I digress. The only poll that matters today is the one stuck to the wall behind me. The Demos sweepstake, predicting size of majority and voter turnout, is now closed. Turnout ranges from 52-71%. And the size of the labour majority goes from a nano-18 to a mega-126. Though not wishing to name names, the 52% guess...
from : jackstilgoe
5th May 2005
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Pub quiz politics
Now back to the election. This quiz tests your knowledge of the facts and figures the contest is supposed to be all about. It's rock hard and makes you realise just how difficult it must be to be a politician and face this kind of thing in interviews. I did woefully badly getting just +35.7.
from : paulmiller
4th May 2005
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When the going get's tough
...the Tories get going. Or so said Alan Milburn on this morning's Jonathan Dimbleby programme, responding to Conservative criticism of the presentation of the case for war. It reminded me of this rant from a disappointed Democrat, in which they argue, "politics is now beyond issues. For Democrats, it?s existential". Had it not been for the war's continued unpopularity, I think we would have seen more of this approach from Labour - playing the Tories at their own game by fusing tough talk...
from : johncraig
1st May 2005
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1997 and all that
While much of this optimism still exists beyond politics, waning enthusiasm in the government and politics more generally is pretty much taken as read.The introduction goes on to say:The generations, brought up against the background of empire and traditional values are slowly giving way to a generation brought up with globalisation and information technologies, greater equality between men and women, and ecological awareness.Given the language banded about during the election campaign -...
from : samhintonsmith
27th April 2005
