politics

by 1 comment on "I disagree with George Lakoff. Greenpeace knows propaganda"

So George Lakoff is interviewed in the paper. This thread discusses (facebook warning). My opinion is requested. “The progressive mindset is screwing up the world. The progressive mindset is guaranteeing no progress on global warming. The progressive mindset is saying, ‘Yes, fracking is fine.’ The progressive mindset is saying, ‘Yes, genetically modified organisms are OK’,…

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by 6 comments on "The Ideal Content-Free Politician Leaves…"

It seems incongruous to cite Langewiesche and Michael White in the same post, so I broke this out separately and it grew. White worries that public anger at MPs’ pay and expenses and even actual thieving will rob us of inspiring examples of public service, such as Denis MacShane. What gets me here is that…

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by 2 comments on "Welcome to Tartania. Set your economic policy to 2011"

OK, consider this country: its monetary policy is controlled by someone else’s central bank, and therefore so is much of its financial and bank regulation policy. Despite this, it has a full set of national symbols. It’s located somewhere on the periphery of Europe, and there’s every reason to think it might experience an inflow…

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by 2 comments on "Boris Island: Shag, Marry, Avoid?"

The Airports Commission is eventually going to opt for Gatwick. Prediction. How did I come to this conclusion? And how representative is the commission as an institution? Well, we can understand the decision-making process here with a simple model. There are various actors involved, who have preferences. To illuminate this, let’s play a game of…

Read More Boris Island: Shag, Marry, Avoid?
by 0 comments on "Voting may affect your interests. Think carefully before voting"

This exchange, and chart, illuminate the biggest challenge and biggest opportunity for Ed Miliband. . @jamestplunkett But not feed through into consumer confidence on own finances yet. Big challenge. pic.twitter.com/rKOVK2NnyK — Matthew Oakley (@MJ_Oakley) December 5, 2013 So, people expect the UK economy to be doing a bit better. They see an inflection point in…

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by 2 comments on "3 amazing facts that show Hopi Sen is wrong"

OK, so. John Band and Oliver Rivers decided I was going to write in Buzzfeed house style for the next whenever, and it’s substantially less annoying to write than gawkerese or Belle Waring. Here goes. Thousands will die or maybe they won’t The Guardian‘s Seamus Milne isn’t happy about energy prices, much like Ed Miliband…

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by 3 comments on "Wonga customers are OK, except for living in abject terror"

Faisal Islam from Benefits Britain TV gets offered a story by Wonga’s PR company, and it works! This is not a moral analysis of Wonga. It is an attempt at a dispassionate economic one, albeit based on a briefing with Wonga execs this morning at the release of its annual report, and I have taken…

Read More Wonga customers are OK, except for living in abject terror