Ed Balls went to Oxbridge, thus making him eminently eligible to lead ‘New’ Labour through its next incarnation as the Pinochio Party. Then again, so did all the other ‘contenders’ as did most of the Coalition cabinet, but let’s stick with Balls for a minute . . . .
By John Kelly
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Also posted in British identity, Political spin, Politics, UK politics, democracy
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Tagged David Milliband, Diane Abbott, Ed Balls, Ed Milliband, New Labour, Oxbridge is the problem not the solution, The Coalition, UK politics, £6 billion cuts announced
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The UK media have been scratching their pointy heads of late as the opinion poll gap between New Labour and the Tories has closed to indicate at best a hung parliament. Despite looming and actual strikes, a record budget deficit with no prospect of recovery, real and impending tax rises, unemployment levels at a 30 [...]
By John Kelly
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Also posted in Economics, Education, Policy, UK politics, citizens' rights, democracy, public sector reform
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Tagged David Cameron, feelgood factor, GordonBrown, jerrymandering, John Major, middle way, Uk 2010 General Election, UK public sector
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January 31, 2010 – 9:35 am
This report came to me by email, so it must be true. Queens University researchers have discovered the heaviest element yet known to science. The new element, Governmentium (symbol=Gv), has one neutron, 25 assistant neutrons, 88 deputy neutrons, and 198 assistant deputy neutrons, giving it an atomic mass of 312. These 312 particles are held together [...]
Thus reader John Poole unearthed Lord Protector Oliver Cromwell’s speech upon dissolving the UK Parliament in 1653, which could be recycled as and when the current smelly rump parliament is dissolved – in a vat of Draino, perhaps? “…It is high time for me to put an end to your sitting in this place, which [...]
By John Kelly
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Also posted in British Constitution, Political spin, Politics, Totalitarian drift, UK politics, democracy
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Tagged democracy, descent into tyranny, England's brief republican era, In the name of god go, Lord Mandelson, MP expenses scandal, Oliver Cromwell dissolves Rump parliament 1653, political corruption, the death of democracy
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This article, originally published on ProPublica, deals with the Obama volte-face on holding prisoners without charge in Guantanamo Bay. It’s a long piece, but not as long as the sentences already served and, by all accounts, about to be extended, to several people who have been denied the right to a fair trial and held in [...]
By John Kelly
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Also posted in Afghanistan, Barack Obama, George W Bush, Global security, Insurgency, Policy, Totalitarian drift, US Politics, War on Terror, human rights abuse
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Tagged Add new tag, Afghanistan, al-Qaida, Anti-Terrorist legislation, Barack Obama, Bush Administration, Combatant Status, Combatant Status Review Tribunals, detention without trial, Global security, Guantanamo Bay, Hamdan, homeland security, human rights abuse, laws of war, opponents of preventive detention say it's Orwellian that such a system would imprison a person based on future dangerousness, Preventive Detention, ProPublica, rendition, Salim Hamdan, Supreme Court, Terrorist
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Neoclassical econometricians with their mad scientist dreams have debased economics. That is why, even though many of its specific mechanical and behavioural insights remain valid, the metatheory of neoclassical economics should be consigned to the scrapheap, argues Thus counter cultural anti-economist Chris Gilchrist. Now pay attention . . . . . Most of us suspect that [...]
By John Kelly
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Also posted in Economics, Finance, Sociology, consumerism
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Tagged Adam Smith, Anglo-Saxon model, California land taxes, Chris Gilchrist, Ernst Schumacher, Galbraith, George Soros, Henry George, if the banks have been whores economists have been their pimps, labour-versus-capital model, land value tax, libertarian human scale economics, lloyd george, Marx, Marx predicted that financial capitalism would destroy capitalism, Neoclassical econometricians with their mad scientist dreams have debased economics, neoclassical economic metatheory, political economists, Progress and Poverty, Ricardo. Marx, Samuel Brittan, time for a new economic model
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“British policy fails because we behave too much like an ineffective old Jeeves, even when Bertie Wooster has gone berserk.” By Timothy Garton Ash. Britain’s Foreign Secretary, David Miliband, responded to my article about possible British complicity in the torture of Binyam Mohamed (Thus passim) with a reader’s letter in the Guardian, disputing its accuracy. [...]
By John Kelly
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Also posted in Afghanistan, George W Bush, Global security, Iraq, Law and order, Politics, Totalitarian drift, War on Terror, citizens' rights, extradition, human rights abuse
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Tagged Binham Mohamed, David Miliband, Foreign office, George W Bush, security services, Timothy Garton Ash, UK-US special relationship, War on Terror
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January 22, 2009 – 4:45 pm
Though you wouldn’t know it from the CNN broadcast soundtrack, George W Bush was soundly booed by a large portion of the 240,000 Washington crowd when he appeared at the Obama coronation on Tuesday (wasn’t Aretha magnificent, but where did they find that poetess and that rambly old biblebashing bloke?) Never mind, though. W. received [...]
January 15, 2009 – 9:28 am
“The president is honoring these leaders for their work to improve the lives of their citizens and for their efforts to promote democracy, human rights and peace abroad“ White House spokeswoman… By John J Kelly On the day when UK Foreign Secretary David Miliband opined that the War on Terror had been a mistake, the Financial Times published conjecture [...]
By John Kelly
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Also posted in Colombia, EU President, George W Bush, Global security, Human rights, Latin America, Political spin, Right Wing paramilitaries, Totalitarian drift, US Politics, War on Terror, ethnic cleansing, human rights abuse, left wing guerillas
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Tagged Afro-Colombians, by John J Kelly, Colombia, Colombian Free Trade Agreement, Colombian paramilitaries, Colombian President Alvaro Uribe, FARC, Latin America, Lori Wallach, Mario Uribe, President Ulribe, Presidential Medal of Freedom, Public Citizen's Global Trade Watch, UAC, Ulribe, worldwide pariah status for its systematic crushing of the most basic human rights
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January 14, 2009 – 8:58 pm
Rasmussen Reports, 13 January 2009 President George W. Bush in a final press conference on Monday 12 January, 2009 acknowledged he made some mistakes in the White House, but most Americans – at least for now – are a lot more critical than that. Fifty-seven percent (57%) of Americans say Bush is one of the [...]
By John Kelly
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Also posted in George W Bush, Global security, Iraq, Law and order, Political spin, US Politics, War on Terror
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Tagged 77% say Bush hurt the Republicans, Global security, GOP, homeland security, Iraq, Only 26% believe America will be a safer place by the end of Obama’s first year, Poll votes George Bush worst US president, President George H.W. Bush, Republican Party, Tony Blair, US Politics, War on Terror
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