Archive for the ‘British current affairs’ Category
How can digital technology help to bridge the gap between Parliamentarians and voters?
July 21st, 2014 by Roger Darlington
Earlier this year, a Speaker’s Commission on Digital Democracy was established to investigate the opportunities digital technology can bring for parliamentary democracy in the UK. It will make recommendations in January 2015. One of the Commission members is Helen Milner, the Chief Executive of the Tinder Foundation, and one of those recently giving evidence was Lord […]
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How do you compare to the average Briton?
July 18th, 2014 by Roger Darlington
Courtesy of the “Daily Mirror”, you’ll find some fun facts here.
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How much more should the top earner in a company be paid than the lowest earner?
July 14th, 2014 by Roger Darlington
Ten times? 50 times?? 100 times??? A new report from the High Pay Centre notes that, since the late 1990s, executive pay has grown from 60 times that of the average UK worker to nearly 180 times and that more radical action is needed if the gap between top bosses and everyone else is to […]
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We should all vote – but you have to be registered first
July 14th, 2014 by Roger Darlington
In my essay “How To Critique A Political System”, I state: “To assess the democratic nature of a political system, one needs a set of tests that are ‘real world’ as opposed to theoretical. Such a set of tests would revolve around the following key questions about the political system itself: How easy is it […]
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Unions are not too strong; they are too weak; and we all suffer
July 8th, 2014 by Roger Darlington
I may be biased. For most of my career – some 24 years – I was a national trade union official. But read what Aditya Chakrabortty, senior economics commentator on the “Guardian”, states in this article: “… the current imbalance of power between workers and bosses, between labour and capital is so lopsided as to […]
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The truth about obesity: 10 shocking things you need to know
June 24th, 2014 by Roger Darlington
Nearly two-thirds of the UK population is either overweight or obese. Obesity is shortening our lives. Obesity could bankrupt the National Health Service. It’s an unfair fight between anti-obesity & food industry marketing. Obesity took off in the have-it-all 1980s. Snacking is a newly created behaviour. The food industry is behaving as the tobacco industry […]
Posted in British current affairs, Social policy | Comments (0)
Today is Manchester Day and here are 10 reasons for Mancunians to be proud
June 22nd, 2014 by Roger Darlington
I spent the first 23 years of my life in Manchester, going to school and university there, and still have close relatives in the city. So today we celebrate Manchester Day and here are 10 reasons why Mancunians are so proud of their city.
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Should Ed Miliband be replaced by Frances O’Grady as Leader of the Labour Party?
June 8th, 2014 by Roger Darlington
My good friend Eric Lee thinks so. I believe his case is fantasy politics – there is no chance and no need. You can see his case and my answer here. Feel free to comment on Eric’s blog or mine or both.
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Is Britain still really a Christian country? And, if not, how can we be good?
June 5th, 2014 by Roger Darlington
According to the research by Peter Brierley, whose second edition of “UK Church Statistics” is due to be published soon, in 2013, there were 5.4 million church members in the UK, a mere 10% of the adult population, taken as 15 and over, 300,000 fewer than five years previously in 2008, when it was 12%. […]
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Great result for Labour in my London borough of Brent
May 23rd, 2014 by Roger Darlington
Yesterday, there were local elections in England and Northern Ireland and European elections throughout the UK. Local election results are still being declared and the European results will not be available until Sunday when all the other EU Member States have voted. I have been able to vote now for almost 50 years: I have […]
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