Archive for the ‘British current affairs’ Category
How well treated are children in your country?
April 11th, 2013 by Roger Darlington
An important measure of how civilised is a country is how well that nation treats its most vulnerable citizens, its children. The UN agency UNICEF periodically publishes league tables on this issue. This week it has published its latest report. The key table – on the frst page of text – ranks 29 developed countries […]
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One more view on Margaret Thatcher
April 9th, 2013 by Roger Darlington
In my time, I’ve met four British Prime Ministers. Given my politics, they were all Labour: Harold Wilson, Jim Callaghan, Tony Blair and Gordon Brown. I never wanted to meet Margaret Thatcher. This was not just a matter of ideology, but also an issue of personality. While I accept that she modernised Britain in some important […]
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10 + 1 things we’ve learned from the Eastleigh by-election
March 2nd, 2013 by Roger Darlington
According to a feature in today’s “Guardian” newspaper, there are 10 key things we can learn from the result of this week’s Parliamentary by-election in Eastleigh: The Liberal Democrats are more resilient than perhaps they realised. British voters are not certain to reject austerity in 2015. Voters do not punish parties for the misconduct of […]
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From Israel to Italy, democracy is complicated
February 26th, 2013 by Roger Darlington
Israel has one of the simplest political systems in the democratic world [my explanation here] – a single legislative chamber and a national list method for electing it – and yet the outcome of the recent general election on 22 January was so messy that five weeks later the country does still not have a […]
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What’s HMRC doing about tax avoidance?
February 19th, 2013 by Roger Darlington
If you are a private citizen and you cheat on your benefit claim or tax return, you are liable to serious consequences – which is as it should be. But, if you a corporation pushing tax avoidance schemes as far as you can, you are likely to get away with it totally. As explained in […]
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The facts behind British and global obesity
February 18th, 2013 by Roger Darlington
The British media today covers a new report on obesity titled “Measuring Up” produced by the Academy of Medical Royal Colleges. The foreward to the report states: “The UK is the ‘fat man’ of Europe. Latest figures from the Health Survey for England 2009-11 shows that one quarter of men and women are obese (BMI over 30) […]
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How inequality is growing in the UK
February 10th, 2013 by Roger Darlington
“… the top 1% of earners have seen their slice of the pie increase from 7% in the mid-1990s to 10% today, while the bottom half have seen their share drop from 19% to 18%.” This is the headline message from a report to be published this week by the Resolution Foundation, which is trailed […]
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Why capitalism needs fundamental reform
February 3rd, 2013 by Roger Darlington
One of the most frequently occurring political themes of this blog is that we live in societies where income, wealth and power are distributed massively unevenly and unfairly and this creates poverty and unhappiness at the individual level and terrible social outcomes at the national and international level. Therefore I was pleased to see a […]
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How much greater is the American gun murder rate than that in Britain?
January 26th, 2013 by Roger Darlington
Twice? Three times? Four times? You may find this hard to believe but the answer is 32 times. Don’t believe me? Check out the graph on this web page. Time for stronger gun controls in the US. Go for it, Barack.
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White British now a minority in London
December 11th, 2012 by Roger Darlington
I have lived and worked in London for more than 40 years now. One of the many things I love about the city is its diversity and tolerance. Details of the latest census underline the extent of this diversity, since they reveal that only 45% of the capital’s 8.2 million class themselves as white Britons. […]
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