Archive for the ‘World current affairs’ Category
Which are the 11 states supporting the new financial transaction tax?
February 22nd, 2013 by Roger Darlington
It was originally called the Tobin tax after the economist who first proposed the idea some 40 years ago and I first blogged about it more than three years ago here; subsequently it became known as the Robin Hood tax in a effort to popularise its appeal; it is a financial transaction tax (FTT) and […]
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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 big is Australia?
February 18th, 2013 by Roger Darlington
I will shortly be visiting Australia for the first time. Since the country is on the other side of the globe to Europe, it is difficult to assess from an atlas what is the relative size of Australia – so I’ve checked. At 7,692,024 km2, Australia is the planet’s sixth largest country after Russia, Canada, China, […]
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How big is New Zealand?
February 18th, 2013 by Roger Darlington
I will shortly be visiting New Zealand for the first time. Since the country is on the other side of the globe to Britain, it is difficult to assess from an atlas what is the relative size of New Zealand – so I’ve checked. The two countries are very similar in size. The UK is […]
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How Britain (and others) are enabling multinational corporations to undermine the tax base of nation states
February 13th, 2013 by Roger Darlington
“Companies have a responsibility to pay corporation tax in the jurisdictions where they operate. Citizens are already losing faith in their banks and the financial system. If big corporations fail to pay tax and leave it to SMEs and middle income groups, it will undermine democracy. This is about the survival of democracy.” And who […]
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“Good morning, Viet-nam!”
February 6th, 2013 by Roger Darlington
A good American friend of mine has just started a tour of Vietnam and Cambodia and sent me these observations on the first country: “Vietnam is a country of nearly 90 million on a land mass about one-third the size of Texas, putting it the top 15 of the most populous nations in the world. […]
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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 […]
Posted in American current affairs, British current affairs, Social policy, World current affairs | Comments (0)
Aleppo: then and now
January 30th, 2013 by Roger Darlington
Aleppo in Syria is one of the oldest inhabited cities in the world with origins dating back to the early second millennium BC. Until recently, it was a thriving urban community of some 2.3 million. Today it is a city ravaged by civil war. Less than two years ago and just a week or two […]
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Could there be a negotiated settlement to the Iran nuclear threat?
December 26th, 2012 by Roger Darlington
The danger to the world of Iran acquiring the capacity to manufacture and launch nuclear weapons – seen by Israel especially as an existential threat – seems to have been running for ever. It was six years ago that I did a posting about serious predictions that Israel would launch an attack on Iran’s nuclear […]
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How Rupert Murdoch tried to buy the United States’ presidency and how the American media have played down the revelation
December 21st, 2012 by Roger Darlington
This is a shocking story which challenges the state of American democracy.
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