(apologies to those of you who arrived at this site expecting something about a Marvin Gaye record. You will be bitterly disappointed). This graph demonstrates cat out of the bag, Google-style: I had worried slightly that my dismissal of the Conservative dismissal of the Lib Dems was underproven (i.e. a big sulky exaggeration). Perhaps, instead, [...]
Archive for the ‘Politics’ Category
19 Apr
Desperately searching for Panic
Since April 14th, the odds of a hung parliament have risen from 40pc to 60pc. I have no reason to doubt the veracity of the FT’s survey of investors: given all they have to worry about, no doubt they would prefer to be able to drop ‘political risk’ from the list, and would prefer undivided [...]
18 Apr
Sandel’s Justice: extrapolating from the extreme
I am only 70 pages in Michael Sandel’s Justice, but am already slightly tired of the technique, which is familiar to me from undergrad philosophy. It is, of course, to illustrate moral dilemmas with extreme examples. Already, off the top of my head, there has been: two real world examples of cannabilism (one a willing [...]
18 Apr
Backlash watch
It is simultaneously fun and repulsive reading the hysterical reactions to the LibDem surge. I haven’t even turned on my Bloglines account to read Guido, Dale, CoffeeHouse et al. My better-edited reaction will be online with a newspaper in a few hours; the theme is how the Tory reaction reveals their nauseating sense of entitlement [...]
17 Apr
Angelo, classic Tory?
One of the huge blessings of modern life is that you can carry the complete works of Shakespeare around in your pocket, to be read whenever you like, or have got tired of Angry Birds. I last read Measure for Measure in 1995 and don’t think I was paying as much attention as now. In [...]
16 Apr
Clearing out my webtabs
By which I mean: stuff that is really interesting, that I had been saving for some wonderfully themed blog, and then lost the will. It’s all dumped here. Ed Conway has written a post I was hoping to: Hung parliament risk rises. Markets say So What I have not commented on Nick’s great performance last [...]
16 Apr
Some links about leftthinking rightthinking liberalthinking ….
… that I can’t be bothered to commentate on with any skill (that’s what you lot are all for). First, Greg Mankiw’s classic: how do right and left differ? An excerpt: The right sees externalities as an occasional market failure that calls for government intervention, but sees this as relatively rare exception to the general [...]
15 Apr
Do the LibDems hate banking too much?
When they released their five rules for bonuses, I was worried that they were getting involved in a hate-auction rather than trying to design sensible policies. Ben Chu of the Indie took the other view, saying “I think I prefer it when sales people are paid a fair wage and have some professional pride in the quality [...]
14 Apr
Elsewhere on the manifesto …
Having done a few stumbling minutes on News 24 (I don’t enjoy sounding like a cheerleader) …. … here is my bit about the LD manifesto on Cif at the Polls The Guardian’s stable of writers seem very positive too. As you know, I am sceptical about their bank bashing, and there are plenty of [...]
14 Apr
The people have the whiphand. But not in the way the Conservatives would like
In case I have not mentioned it before, I am a liberal. I find the idea of being reliant on the state for my future wellbeing disturbing, and intrinsically unsatisfying. I sort of expect others to feel the same. Whether it comes from the right (see IEA comment thread) or left, I am repelled by [...]
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