Out of the corner of my eye

Non Sibi, Sed Omnibus

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Entries Tagged as 'Politics'

Budget woes incoming…

April 22nd, 2009 · No Comments

From the BBC:
He is expected to unveil soaring public borrowing and details of the worst recession since World War II ended.
Tax rises and spending cuts from 2011 are likely as Mr Darling sets out his plans to restore public finances.
Meanwhile, the International Monetary Fund (IMF) has admitted it made a mistake when it claimed […]

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Tags: Politics · current affairs

Laissez-Faire Capitalism: Is it over, yet?

February 3rd, 2009 · No Comments

It’s time to drive the final nail into the coffin of laissez-faire capitalism by treating it like the discredited ideology it inarguably is. If not, the Dr. Frankensteins of the right will surely try to revive the monster and send it marauding through our economy once again.

We’ve got to do everything we can to make […]

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Tags: Economics · Politics

The UK strikes are not xenophobic

February 1st, 2009 · No Comments

Do we defend globalisation, with its laissez-faire allowance of the exploitation of cheap mobile labour (see the construction workers shipped in with no rights and horrible pay to work on the building projects in Dubai for an extreme example), because of a liberal hang-wringing urge to shout about racism and xenophobism?
This is not nationalism, it […]

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Tags: Economics · Politics

On war: Slaughterhouse-Five

February 1st, 2009 · No Comments

I’ve just started reading Slaughterhouse-Five by Kurt Vonnegut, a kind of autobiography about his experience of the fire bombing of Dresden, “The Florence of the Elbe”, in the Second World War. Early on the book describes how he went to visit one of the men he served with, and finds his wife is angry with […]

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Tags: History · Politics

The BBC’s Refusal to Broadcast a Humanitarian Appeal

January 25th, 2009 · No Comments

My own comment in the complaint to the BBC:
I am disgusted and saddened by the BBC’s refusal to broadcast the DEC’s Gaza appeal under the pretense of ‘impartiality’. Regardless of the politics of the situation in the Middle East, it is a cold hard fact that thousands of people are living in refugee camps, thousands […]

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Tags: Politics

So, Israel:

January 17th, 2009 · No Comments

You bomb civilian areas with White Phosphorus  (Image)
Your IDF ignores rulings by your own country’s Supreme Court on allowing journalists access to Gaza
You break the ceasefire (of which you did not fulfill the terms of anyway) then blame Hamas
You ban political parties in your own country because “they support terrorism” and do not recognise Israel […]

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Tags: Politics

Banks and Debt: Current State of Play

November 3rd, 2008 · 1 Comment

Our government is doing what it does best: farming off national interests to privately run enterprises. The new “UK Financial Investments Limited” company formed by the Treasury to look after the interests of the Royal Bank of Scotland, HBOS and Lloyds TSB will be headed by Sir Philip Hampton, the former finance director of, er, […]

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Tags: Economics · Politics

Nu-Labour’s “Everyone back to work, OR ELSE!” policy

October 31st, 2008 · No Comments

So, in an effort to find something to be outraged about today, I didn’t have to look far when I found a link to this Telegraph article on a forum I read:
“Jason Lightwood, 38, enrolled on a group training session designed to help people struggling to find work.
As part of the session, jobseekers were given […]

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Tags: Culture · Politics

42 Days Too Far: In the Lords

October 3rd, 2008 · No Comments

“I will, at this stage, focus most of my remarks on the proposal to extend pre-charge detention to 42 days. We oppose the proposal in its entirety. Many in this House will have watched with grave concern the passage of this proposal through another place. It brings to the fore the challenge of balancing the […]

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Tags: Culture · Politics

$700 billion handout for willful ignorance

September 23rd, 2008 · 1 Comment

You know, it’s crazy. I used to work for one of the big investment banks. In fact, I was actually in their Risk IT department - we built the systems they used to evaluate risk on their investments. These banks ploughed a lot of cash into building these kinds of systems, employed some very smart […]

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Tags: Economics · Politics