Politics
-
Posted in:
US and EU
All States and aspiring States have their ‘myth of origin’ – that is a story, true or false, of how they came into being. The myth of origin of the European Union is that it is fundamentally a peace project to prevent wars between Germany and France. Most wars are civil wars, not inter-State ones. […]
-
More agricultural than environmental.
-
Posted in:
Corporate welfare fares well
Corporate welfare is controversial. Negatively, it can mean ‘crony capitalism’ – politicians using public resources to benefit their friends in business, or at best propping up failing enterprises for short-term political gain. A more positive understanding is that corporate welfare involves the state, employers and workers co-operating on a shared project of economic development. Corporate […]
-
Posted in:
Even kingdoms have rights
Democracy means rule by people, however, there is some dispute as to what exactly this means in practice. It must mean more than majority rule – it cannot allow minorities to be oppressed just because they are minorities. Democracy and fairness Democracy must embrace fairness in its broadest sense. It needs to engage with […]
-
Posted in:
A vision, with buy-in
History and economics John Moran is former Secretary General at the Department of Finance. I meet him for brunch in a Mexican restaurant on bank holiday Monday. He is bright and open, and brings along his ebullient mother (but that is another story). Before elevation to the most senior position in the Department of Finance Moran […]
-
Steve Bannon, President Trump’s chief strategist, was removed from the National Security Council in early April. Among the Kremlinologists who watch the Trump White House, this has been interpreted as a setback for the man whose neo-reactionary philosophy provides the guiding principles of Trumpism: Islamophobia, misogyny, xenophobia, and excited anticipation of a new American revolution. […]
-
Posted in:
Trump versus the public sector
Steve Bannon, President Donald Trump’s chief strategist and beacon of the so-called ‘alt-right’, recently announced to cheers at the right-wing Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC) that “the primary goal of the Trump administration” is “the deconstruction of the administrative state” or the dismantling of the public sector. Similarly, Trump’s oft-chanted populist campaign pledge to #DrainTheSwamp […]