David Cameron says "we are a Christian country". Luke Bretherton, a reader in Theology and Politics at Kings College London says he's brave but wrong. But what would it mean to be a "Christian country"? There is an interesting difference between what David Cameron says and what Bretherton attributes to him. Cameron said "we are a […]
OK. Time, once again, for some bad predictions. (At least they make for discussion…) The euro will not totally collapse, but will have lost members by the end of the year, including Greece and Cyprus. At least two large French and one large German bank will be nationalised. Italian ten-year bond yields will average below […]
In a widely-reported section of his Christmas sermon, the Archbishop of Canterbury stated the following: The most pressing question we now face, we might well say, is who and where we are as a society. Bonds have been broken, trust abused and lost. Whether it is an urban rioter mindlessly burning down a small shop […]
At around this time of year, it is common to observe a pattern along the following lines: Some senior Churchmen of the Anglican and/or Catholic church produce sermons in which they attempt to apply their interpretation of Biblical messages to current issues The newspapers report these sermons, selecting a few key passages, often focusing upon […]
One important question for political philosophy concerns the extent to which order is intrinsic to the world, as opposed to its being arbitrary what one calls "order" such that one man's order could be another man's anarchy. Christmas provides us with part of an answer. If there really is a moral order, for example, then ideal policy […]
There is a big and silly fuss today about Alan Hansen's remarks on Match of the Day in which (in the context of discussing racism in football) he said "There's a lot of coloured players in all the major teams and there's a lot of coloured players that are probably the best in the Premier […]
On Wednesday I asked whether, in the event of an Irish referendum on staying in the euro, the British government should clarify that, in the event the Irish did decide to leave, a currency union with Sterling might be available – as was the case until the 1970s. In the light of the comments, I had […]
Irish Finance Minister Michael Noonan acknowledged today that there would need to be an Irish referendum on the new €+-26 Treaty if it implied any change to the Irish constitution. Since an essential part of the Treaty is to introduce a German-style quasi-balanced budget amendment to constitutions, then of course there would be a change […]
Reacting to Lib Dem disquiet about the veto, newspapers today carry multiple reports that David Cameron is about to offer an "olive branch" to Nick Clegg. As the Telegraph puts it: "Mr Cameron is also preparing to make a significant concession to Mr Clegg and his party on the way Britain deals with the countries who […]
Having recovered from our weekend hangovers, through some combination of over-excitement about the veto and abandonment of austerity for the duration of our office Christmas parties, we emerge this week, blinking, into a strange new world. How did it all happen? What does it all mean? And where do we go from here? I guess […]
Okaaay. Well, that's set the cat amongst the pigeons. A few questions, in no particular order: Are we going to buckle in a couple of weeks, and sign up despite the show last night? Having been so adamant that we had to have an opt-out from financial regulation that we vetoed a Treaty, but not […]
If I say: “Suicide is selfish”, or “abortion is wicked” or “most fat people should try to be less greedy”, I shall be widely upbraided and censured. People might concede that I can hold such an opinion, if I must, but they think I should restrict my expression of such views to private discussions with […]
Once again, this week, Britain’s refusal to renegotiate stands in the way of the success of the European Project. The point of the European Union is, and always has been, to create a Single European State. Other than for a brief period from the late 1960s until the mid-1980s, as well as being true that […]
The Government has to cut spending. It has to do it somehow, and whatever way it chooses to do it is going to be unpopular. I’d prefer it did most (about 80%) of the work of cutting the deficit by spending cuts rather than tax rises. And if the government is going to raise taxes, […]
Paul Mason has an interesting blog arguing that the 2011 Autumn Statement has destroyed the argument for “expansionary fiscal contraction” — i.e. the view that the economy would grow faster as the deficit was cut. He says that this did not work, partly because key channels through which private demand was supposed to be stimulated under […]