Which Queen? Which speech? Who cares? | Daniel Finkelstein – Times Online
Interesting piece by Danny Finkelstein about just how little attention the voters are paying to politics, most of the time: 'In his invaluable book on the last election campaign, Smell the Coffee, Michael Ashcroft provides the result of polling he commissioned to track the [...]
Posts tagged with ‘politics’
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18 November 2009 – 11:00 pm
A passing thought on the Nutt business
3 November 2009 – 4:54 pm
Politicians are always quick enough to invoke ’scientific advice’ when they want to deflect responsibility for an unpopular policy decision, like the availability of different treatments on the NHS, or the mass slaughter of animals during a foot and mouth outbreak. And as long as they actually are acting on good scientific advice, fair enough.
But [...]
Echoes from the Dead Zone by Yiannis Papadakis
23 May 2009 – 1:27 pm
Yiannis Papadakis is a Greek Cypriot anthropologist, and Echoes from the Dead Zone is based on his fieldwork in Turkey and on both sides of the Green Line in Cyprus. he investigates the different attitudes of people on each side of the conflict, and in the process has to confront all his own prejudices from growing [...]
Let them eat farls
31 March 2009 – 10:28 am
More gloomy news from Northern Ireland. I can’t tell you how depressing it was a few weeks ago to be woken by Radio 4 reporting on the terrorist attack that killed two soldiers in Northern Ireland.
Because really, if you’d asked me to pick one unambiguously good news story from my time on earth, I’d have said the ending of violence [...]
Some names for IRA splinter groups
10 March 2009 – 11:52 pm
Funereal IRA
Eel IRA
Ambiguity IRA
Frivolity IRA
Campanology IRA
Imbecility IRA
Diagonal IRA
Confessional IRA
Digressional IRA
Irish Rational Divination Army
Irish Fashionable Celebration Army
Wiry Publican Calibration Army
Fiery Snatching Lubrication Sarnie
That letter
26 January 2009 – 10:43 am
I was considering what it was about that weird political letter that made me put in the effort to blog it. I think it’s two things, really. The first is that we are increasingly surrounded by the mass produced and mechanically produced, and I find amateur, hand-made things more and more appealing. Of course, even a hundred [...]
A weird letter
23 January 2009 – 2:20 pm
A couple of days ago, this peculiar typewritten envelope was put through the door:
The ALL CAPS typewritten envelope reeks of ‘political nutjob’ and the red cross in the corner, for those of you who don’t know, is the English flag — the cross of St George, in fact — which during major football tournaments can be passed [...]
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5 January 2009 – 2:00 pm
An Oral History of the Bush White House: Politics & Power: vanityfair.com
Much of the general drift is familiar, but this long article still makes for interesting reading. You have to wonder how much better any president would have done if 9/11 had happened on their watch: Clinton? Obama? Palin? FDR? Take your pick. The Bush [...]
Charlie boy apparently wants to destroy the monarchy
17 November 2008 – 9:11 pm
The Times hints at the gory details:
The Prince of Wales, who celebrated his 60th birthday on Friday, has told confidants he would like his role to “evolve” so that his knowledge and experience are not wasted once he inherits the crown, Jonathan Dimbleby, his friend and biographer, reveals today.
Translation: he wants to have his cake [...]
Self-evident
17 November 2008 – 4:05 pm
I always thought the US Declaration of Independence had a lovely bit of intellectual sleight of hand. It’s phrased almost as an exercise in logical deduction (various bits bolded for emphasis):
We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are [...]
Lawks-a-mercy
6 November 2008 – 8:21 pm
I really am going to stop posting about the US elections soon, but this was kind of priceless:
The best bit is Bill O’Reilly trying to stick up for her.
[later edit]
And while I’m posting YouTube videos, here’s a bit of The Day Today that seems curiously relevant:
California says yes to Prop 8…
6 November 2008 – 3:37 pm
I was sad to see that Prop 8 (the Californian ballot measure to rewrite the state constitution to ban gay marriage) was passed on Tuesday. I know it’s a big state and more diverse than its liberal image suggests, but you still kind of feel that if California isn’t ready to support gay marriage, it’ll be [...]
In which my irritation boileth over
24 October 2008 – 12:19 pm
Gerard Baker, the United States Editor of the (London) Times, has been gamely sticking up for the Republicans during this election. Even among the employees of that relatively conservative paper I imagine he feels like a bit of a beleaguered minority, so it’s perhaps not surprising that the tone of his articles has started to [...]
John McCain knows what’s wrong with the economy
8 October 2008 – 7:52 am
It’s the planetariums, stupid.
The return of Mandelson
4 October 2008 – 1:29 pm
It was a weird moment to see Peter Mandelson of all people return to the cabinet. Particularly weird, for me, because I had been half-heartedly composing a mental list of the celebrities I would most enjoy seeing on Strictly Come Dancing*, and so far the only people definitely on it were Christiano Ronaldo, Rachel Weisz and Peter [...]
On Sarah Palin
31 August 2008 – 7:42 pm
Scanning over the basic facts of Sarah Palin’s life, I was immediately struck by the fact that 40% of her children are named after witches.* This may say more about me than it does about her.
* Piper and Willow.
Occupational Hazards by Rory Stewart
29 August 2008 – 1:34 pm
Occupational Hazards is Stewart’s account of trying to administer Maysan province in southern Iraq. He’s obviously an interesting character; to quote his author bio: ‘After a brief period in the British army, he studied at Balliol College, Oxford, and then joined the Foreign Office, serving in Indonesia and Montenegro, Yugoslavia. From 2000 to 2002 he walked six [...]
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18 July 2008 – 11:00 pm
Silver Lake on Flickr – Photo Sharing!
Autochromes are a kind of early colour photography. This one is particularly fabulous, but check out the whole set.
(del.icio.us tags: autochromes photos )
Running for Office: It’s Like A Flamewar with a Forum Troll, but with an Eventual Winner
OK, fair's fair, this is quite funny.
(del.icio.us tags: Kansas politics )
Marc Steinmetz [...]