Following the announcement by KPMG and Netflix to suspend operations in Russia and Belarus over the attack on Ukraine, the CEO and founder of Airbnb has announced similar measures for the global holiday rental platform. Speaking on the BBC Radio 4 Today program (7 March 2022), Brian Chesky talked of a difficult decision that in …
Category archives: Politics
Climate Change: A Short Experiment in Politics
Climate change can be viewed as a handy, planetary scale, natural experiment whose outcome will cast new light on the politics of left and right. In amongst the gathering climate disaster and impending catastrophe of unchecked climate change there is an uncounted blessing. Small comfort though it is, we might finally have a test that …
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Sloshed, they worked into the night Saving the Nation
The UK press is once again awash with the latest revelations of the Johnson’s regime’s boozy misconduct and its entitled, unending contempt for the nation. The Prime Minister, his aids, senior civil servants and their minions have persistently flouted the national COVID rules they themselves put in place, most frequently at farewell parties. This was …
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Bottom-up Party: Popular selection of Policy and Candidates
Noam Chomsky once gave a very good description of how to make sure the politicians we vote in will serve the societal good rather than themselves and powerful interests. Basically, we tell them which policies we want them to stand for. If they agree, we agree to vote for them. That is somewhat different to …
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Kier Starmer: Not Simply Stooge But A Damp Squib
We all held our breath and journalists wrote articles about the barrister’s sharp mind and razor reasoning. Here was a fellow who could string a serious question together whilst getting a few laughs at Boris’s expense. So we all imagined Boris shaking in his boots. And Boris very well probably shook in his boots, as …
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Pinning Them Down: Accountability in Government and Corporations
Even after the recent Downing Street Scandals and bean-spilling by Dominic Cummings, Boris Johnson remains PM. After multiple allegations of cronyism, lying, dodgy loans and his then fiancé Cary Simons plucking someone from the crosshairs of an enquiry because she was best friends with him, plus a story about her dog taking up the PM’s …
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How to Beat Capitalism with its own Carrot
Here I share the raw insight into how carrots make capitalism work and look bad all at the same time. In a nutshell, the whole edifice of the capitalist system rests on carrots, with all the embarrassing implications this brings with it. The kernel of insight in this observation – which I have to admit …
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Silvio and the 500,000 theives
It is useless to claim, for a person of depth, that one avoids politics because it leads nowhere. But, alas, it must be said. Because, after a brief period in the wilderness, Silvio Berlusconi is back. This recent victory, at the head of the Party of Liberty, prompted a question: how is it possible that …