Archive for September, 2010
Cool Britannia™
Posted by David Merlin-Jones in Economics, Family, Marriage and the Culture on 30/09/2010
As abstract concepts go, ‘coolness’ has to be one of the hardest to define. The uncool Oxford English Dictionary has had a go, suggesting: ‘informal, fashionably attractive or impressive’. While this is rather ambiguous, suffice it to say that the idea that being cool is a state of mind, a quality based on a person having a touch of je ne sais quoi, has been replaced by a focus on shiny things. The company CoolBrands has drawn up a materialistic list of, unsurprisingly, the coolest brands in Britain. And what a lot it says about us. Read the rest of this entry »
Ex-EU Commissioners are still cashing in
Posted by Claire Daley in European Union on 29/09/2010
Ex-EU Commissioners are still claiming substantial amounts of money from the EU, despite having left their jobs over a year ago, writes Natalie Hamill. ‘Transitional funds’ of at least €96,000 per year are still being claimed by 17 former Commissioners, most of whom have secured lucrative employment since leaving office in the EU.
The Prison Reform that Wasn’t There
Posted by Nick Cowen in Crime on 28/09/2010
Yesterday, Jack Straw defended his record on prisons at a Fabian event at the Labour Party conference (via Next Left). Juliet Lyons of the Prison Reform Trust felt let down that New Labour had not put a stop to rising prison numbers when they were in office. The problem with her complaint is the lack of a viable alternative to prison in a great many cases. Despite years of campaigning, reformers have yet to come up with a solid evidence-based reform to our current prison system.
Could Greenpeace be greener?
Posted by admin in Economics, Environment, Politics on 27/09/2010
From 24 – 26 September the British newspaper The Independent jointly hosted a forum on ‘The Sustainable Planet’, writes Stephen Clarke. One of the newsworthy results of this forum was reported by The Independent on Sunday on 26 September under the headline ‘Public opinion stopped GM, says campaigner’. The paper was referring to a statement by Lord Melchett, a former director of Greenpeace who now believes that GM crops are a ‘redundant technology’.
Baby On Board
Posted by Annaliese Briggs in Education, Health on 27/09/2010
“For two marks, spell and define ‘pre-eclampsia,’ and a bonus point for anyone who can explain the difference between a breech and normal delivery,” instructs a midwife from a blackboard to a small class of two pregnant girls and a young boy who would otherwise be sat outside the headteacher’s office (the absentees were either suffering from morning sickness or male and in a maths lesson).
Reach for the Skylon
Posted by David Merlin-Jones in Economics, Politics on 24/09/2010
As grand designs go, this one is big. The Skylon project, which aims to manufacture a reusable ‘spaceplane’, is the brainchild of the British based company Reaction Engines Ltd and has been gaining support from the Government and the EU for years. However, with the Government’s Comprehensive Spending Review coming up, it is crunch-time for the project. Whilst it may be difficult to justify such an expensive investment in this so-called ‘age of austerity’, the Coalition should not follow Thatcher’s example (she abandoned a similar project in the 1980s). The long-term advantages of the Skylon project coming to fruition are manifold and such a paragon of British engineering is long overdue.