Category: Politics

Malawi – academic freedom under attack

[This post is being updated as more information arrives, so please check back].

A friend and colleague at the University of Malawi (Chancellor College) has just sent this somewhat hair-raising account of a developing attack on academic freedom there: Continue reading “Malawi – academic freedom under attack” →

NHS Reform: Who’s Gonna Count the Beans?

Here’s a simple question about the NHS reforms – who’s going to count the beans? Bean counting gets a bad press, but as soon as someone fails to count the public sector beans – for which read “the taxpayers money” – properly all hell breaks loose. Continue reading “NHS Reform: Who’s Gonna Count the Beans?” →

Going Nuclear: the BBC (and rest of the media) and Japan

I don’t usually do media commentary, but the coverage of the aftermath of the quake and tsunami in Japan forces me to make one point: the coverage of the nuclear problems at Fukushima are out of all proportion to the scale of the problem itself or, more importantly, the very real scale of the catastrophe of the quake and tsunami. Continue reading “Going Nuclear: the BBC (and rest of the media) and Japan” →

Big Society versus Big State – unpicking a myth

The current debate in the UK about the  “Big Society” has been marred by some unfortunate mythology about to what extent the “Big Society” already exists, whether it is growing or shrinking, and whether it is counter-posed to the “Big State”.  The argument can be summed up as follows: Continue reading “Big Society versus Big State – unpicking a myth” →

Western Universities Helped Ferment the Arab Revolt

Over the past couple of decades, tens of thousands of students from (usually autocratic) Arab states have attended universities in Britain, America and other western countries. On a smaller scale, many western universities have also run all sorts of training and education programmes in these same states. Continue reading “Western Universities Helped Ferment the Arab Revolt” →

10,000 Reasons for the Coalition to be Worried?

The Oldham and Saddleworth by-election is intersting for all sorts of reasons: the first since the general election; the first where two Coalition parties have fought each other (or not); the first sitting MP to be expelled by an Election Court for lying about an opponent (and let’s hope that doesn’t catch on or we’ll have no MPs left); and so on.

By-election results are most usually analysed by commentators in terms of “share of the vote” because they usually attract far fewer voters than a General Election – and indeed turnout was down from 61% to 48.6% since last May. But, and here the election is unusual, the fall in the vote is entirely accounted for by the fall in the votes of the two Coalition parties. Continue reading “10,000 Reasons for the Coalition to be Worried?” →

Manchester and Old and Sad – conspiracy or cock-up?

The allegation is being widely circulated that Manchester City Council announced it’s 2,000 job losses today as a “spoiler” for the Old & Sad bye-election. Sadly, nothing so expertly Machiavellian has happened…. Continue reading “Manchester and Old and Sad – conspiracy or cock-up?” →

Localisation of the Bill

Today we have seen clearly what “localism” means for the Coalition government: localising the bill for the financial and economic crisis caused not by government – central or local – but by the banks. Continue reading “Localisation of the Bill” →

University Fees and Muddled Motives

On this morning’s Today programme Education minister Michael Gove – reputedly a man of great intelligence – maintained that raising University tuition fees to nearly 3 times their current level for some Universities would have absolutely no effect on levels of applications from students from lower and middle income backgrounds. Continue reading “University Fees and Muddled Motives” →