Archive for June, 2011
The Great Escape: Part II
Posted by Carolina Bracken in Civil Liberty, Crime, European Union, Human Rights on 30/06/2011
In light of the increasingly evident disparity between standards of criminal justice in EU member states, the European Commission has launched a consultation on pre-trial detention and extradition. This Green Paper should be welcomed as a recognition of “the scandal of excessive and unjustified pre-trial detention in Europe”, and the need to impose more rigorous common standards to prevent further rights violation.
Our man in Turkey
Posted by Jon Davies in European Union, Foreign Affairs, Religion on 27/06/2011
Turkey’s bloodless civil war is between pious Muslims who want the public space to be dominated by their interpretation of religion, and less dogmatic Muslims who believe in the strict separation of state and mosque (Burak Bekdil, Hurriyet June 7 2011)
Europe can be seen as bracketed by Turkey to the south-east and Great Britain to the north-west. These two large ex-imperial countries – with very different (though inter-locked) histories, constitutional traditions and recently-elected governments – would seem to have some things in common. As the Ottoman Empire became the nation-state of Turkey, and the British Empire also became a nation-state, both countries had perforce to re-structure their relationships with the other nation-states of the world, and in particular with their immediate geographical neighbour, ‘Europe’.
Where the strings attach
Posted by Anastasia de Waal in Family, Marriage and the Culture on 24/06/2011
The Prime Minister is a well-known advocate of family life: a conviction he has now employed to encourage the British public to stigmatise non-present fathers, writes Therese Wallin.
The Great Escape
Posted by Carolina Bracken in Civil Liberty, Crime, European Union, Human Rights on 22/06/2011
After ten months in barbaric captivity, and a further three years in legal limbo, Andrew Symeou has been acquitted of manslaughter and can return to the UK. His story must serve as evidence of the worst excesses of the European Arrest Warrant, and be used as a platform to achieve long-overdue and far-reaching change.
Curing British procurement
Posted by Stephen Clarke in Economics, European Union, Politics on 20/06/2011
Although the business press concentrated on Greece’s economic woes over the weekend, more attention should’ve been paid to the British economy and news that train-maker Bombardier is to review its UK operations. It is speculated that the reason for the review is the failure of the firm to win a major contract to build carriages for the Thameslink project. Does the decision suggest it’s time to rethink the Government’s procurement strategy?
Debugging the curriculum
Posted by Nick Cowen in Education on 14/06/2011
Via Bishop Hill, we learn that schools will no longer be required to teach climate change as part of the science curriculum. This is a good step, not so much because of the political controversies surrounding climate change policy, but because its inclusion helped to set a bad precedent. It has become a common tactic of influential interest groups (whether on the right or the left) to try and get their pet issues inserted into educational policy so that they can be advocated nationally to the detriment of other important content. This is one of the drivers of unnecessary centralisation in the education system. This process diminishes teachers’ professional autonomy, reduces their local accountability to parents, and forces them to waste time complying with Government directives rather than delivering engaging lessons. Moreover, in concentrating on topical issues rather than the knowledge necessary to grasp subject areas, children’s educational horizons have been narrowed.
