The Slow Squeeze on Science Funding
Following a campaign lead by high-profile scientists last year, the government agreed to protect funding for scientific research from the worst of the cuts inflicted by the Comprehensive Spending Review. There was a collective sigh of relief in science departments up and down the country: funding levels would be preserved on a “flat cash” basis [...]
Is there a political solution to halt genocide in the Nuba Mountains, Sudan?
Guest post by Tim Flatman, who has recently returned from South Sudan. Is genocide always an irrational action carried out by a despot who has lost his grasp on reality, or can it be a pragmatic policy exacted to meet the self-interest of a ruling elite? Can it co-exist with rebellion or must the targets of genocide [...]
The Dependency Paradox
Personal responsibility is a recurring theme in Conservative rhetoric, although they tend to use the more down-to-earth expression of “doing the right thing”. David Cameron and Iain Duncan Smith in particular like to use this to block any criticism of the proposed reforms to the benefits system and public sector pensions. Instead, they champion a [...]
Happy Armed Forces Day
UK fatalities Iraq: 179 [source] UK fatalities Afghanistan: 374 [source] US fatalities Iraq: 4463 [source] US fatalities Afghanistan: 1663 [source] Iraqi fatalities: 100,000+ [source] [source (pdf)] (perhaps as high as a million) Afghan fatalities: 10,000+ [source] (No reliable comprehensive estimate. UNAMA count 9759 for 2006-2010) Cost of Iraq War (UK): £9.24bn [source] Cost of Afghanistan War [...]
Enough of the drama: on the language of rape
This week we’ve had the annual figures released from the Crown Office, which show the number of convictions for rape, and as normal, it makes pretty depressing reading. So far only two of the political parties in The Scottish Parliament have commented on the figures, the Liberal Democrats and the Conservatives. While both parties are [...]
No to de-recognition at Robert Gordon University
Robert Gordon University, in Aberdeen, recently terminated it’s recognition agreements with both the University and Colleges Union (UCU) and Unite. UCU were immediately derecognised, while Unite, owing to a slightly different agreement, were given 6 months notice. The university claimed, in a letter to Unite, that going forward they required a more “effective and efficient [...]
Hutting: A social Revolution waiting to happen
In Scotland, in Britain and in most of the Western world we have a profoundly dysfunctional relationship with work and leisure. For too many of us living for the weekend, or living for our two weeks of holidays a year is what gets us through dehumanising, alienating work. While work doesn’t need to be like [...]
A Year of BS: 3 Reasons why The Big Society is a Big Fraud
For some time in opposition David Cameron had been quietly supportive of a group of people doing things most people didn’t rate, but that made a huge difference to the country. The Labour Government had sometimes made overtures to them. But towards the end things had got a bit sticky. Cameron would surely move to [...]
A tribute to Brian Haw 1949-2011
Brian Haw, who has died aged 62, had the distinction of being one of the few people with a law dedicated to stopping his activities. His protest in Parliament Square against the illegal war in Iraq was such an affront to Tony Blair that the then Prime Minister ensured that protests in Parliament Square were [...]
The Euro Crisis shows the importance of Economics
At any time now the Euro could collapse. The common currency which was adopted to widespread acclaim in 2000 looks like it may be on its last legs. It will take only one more economic collapse in a member state to make the currency so unstable that it might not survive. This crisis has exposed [...]
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