US Conservatives Call for Opportunism in Haiti

There’s been a new group doing the rounds on Facebook in the last 72 hours entitled “No Shock Doctrine for Haiti”. Just 3 hours after the news of the Earthquake reached American ears, the Heritage Foundation, cheerleaders of America’s Right, published an article entitled “Amidst the suffering, Crisis in Haiti offers opportunities for the U.S.” This is the original, Google-cached version, and should be required reading.

How others see me

I just found a post all about me on another person’s blog. Thanks to Chris Fraser of University of York for putting a smile on my face where others might have been furious; you’ve made my day. I just love the way he manages to start on the surface, is honest without being totally dismissive, and then writes his views on my activism under that. I’m not sure I’ve ever seen someone be so honest about both at once.

Community Snow Clearing: Labour or Tory?

Community Spirit against the Snow With the election looming, I suspect I’ll be spending more and more time trying to distinguish between the different political parties. A tweet earlier in the week caught my eye, as someone drew attention to a Times comment piece; I realise I’m dealing with lot of stuff from comment pieces right now, but apparently “Snow brings out the inner Tory in all of us”.

Class as a weapon against Racism

I want to write a couple of pieces looking at the re-emergence of the Class debate in recent weeks. If the last decade saw an attempt at the triumphal claim that class no longer mattered, this decade is likely to require a head-on tackling of class issues, whether or not a Tory government is elected on 6th May. John Denham MP, Communities Minister, has brought this to the fore in discussions regarding the role of racial and class-based divisions in society today.

UK Snow: The Climate is Still Changing

This is not going to be an in depth scientific analysis of the recent state of Britain’s weather, but I do want to pick out some of the inherent flaws in using Britain’s weather to refute the existence of Climate Change. With a very cold December and probably even colder start to January now behind us, I suspect we’ll hear a lot about Global Warming and very little about Climate Change.

Lord Carey: Coincidence of Views?

When you follow politics in depth, sometimes you begin to see patterns emerging, certain people keep popping up. Right now the person I’m watching is former Archbishop Lord Carey, who’s made two interventions in recent weeks on issues close to my heart.

Should Meat be Taxed?

I want to raise a policy idea that has floated around mind for some weeks: placing VAT on meat. There are many reasons why this could work, but my main concern was to come up with something that could be backed by both meat eaters and non-meat eaters, and that provides a gentler nudge towards a transition.

The rise in private policing

Much as I have an intense distrust of the police, owing to their historic bias towards the protecting the rich and their interests, I have to say that, given the choice, I’d rather have a state-run police force than a private security firm patrolling the streets. So it was with some anger that I read a BBC report raising the issue of the growing trend in private policing in Britain.

Father Tim and the power of the Media

I suppose it was inevitable that I would get round to writing about this topic eventually. The brief flurry of press coverage Father Tim’s now-famous sermon received came just as I was sleeping off the effects of Copenhagen, and so almost got missed in the hurry to try and write up my experiences. I want to pick out just one aspect at this stage: the relationship between Church and Media.

Should the Church work for social or political change?

This is a question I’ve been wrestling with a lot over the last few months, and in Copenhagen it became a lot more of a sharp issue running around in my mind, as it did in the row on this blog over Women’s Roles in the Church. Social change does not involve a decision by a ruling body, it involves shifting the consensus, convincing a wider group of people to make smaller attitude and behaviour changes.