• Pages

  • Site Sections

  • Tags

  • Archives

Performance Related Pay – Expensive, misguided and ineffective

Tweet    PERFORMANCE RELATED PAY Performance related pay presents expensive, counter-productive practical problems. It also offers a superficial concept of reward and recognition and a profoundly misguided understanding of the personal and social value of work. It denies and rejects the extraordinary power of unity and self-motivation in a common cause so inspirationally demonstrated during […]

The American Election Process and The West Wing – simply the best

Tweet        The American Election Process and The West Wing    It seems to me the democratic process both in the UK and the US is in crisis: but for different reasons arising from the distinctly different systems. From the outside and as portrayed in the media, the American system seems close to […]

Borgen (BBC4) – Adam Price Political drama from Denmark to rival The Killing

Tweet      Borgen (BBC4) – Adam Price This excellent political drama ended its 10 episode run on BBC4 last night. Following on from the unexpected world-wide hit with The Killing thriller series the Danish Broadcasting Corporation (DR) is justifiably earning a reputation for grown-up TV driven by placing the quality of writing and narrative at […]

The Iron Lady – Mrs Thatcher Streeped Bare

Tweet      The Iron Lady – Phyllida Lloyd Margaret Thatcher was for 15 years in British public life, the eye of calm certainty at the epicentre of a storm of chaotic energy endlessly fed by political events: from the Poll Tax riots; the ineradicable social toxicity of the Miners’ strike; the callous brutality of […]

OPEN LETTER – Ailing Western Democracies Must Be Reformed

Tweet    Ailing Democracies must be Reformed   Even before MP’s expenses, Credit Crunch, Recession and Deficit Reduction Western democracy was in crisis. Implacable partisanship and polarised ideology has rendered the US political system dysfunctional and impotent before globally based problems. In the UK, decades of Political incompetence in managing and delivering cost effective social […]

A Liberal decalogue – Bertrand Russell Not to replace the old one – to supplement it

Tweet    A LIBERAL DECALOGUE by Bertrand Russell   Not intended to replace the old one but only to supplement it   Do not feel absolutely certain of anything. Do not think it worthwhile to proceed by concealing evidence, for the evidence is sure to come to light. Never try to discourage thinking for you […]

Letter – Political Leadership – Published London Times 5th May ’09

Tweet Political Leadership Barack Obama’s election puts the latest ‘Brown study’ of the Labour Party into perspective. The Democratic Party had two candidates of intellectual weight, political gravitas and an air of leadership – in the UK we have none – in any party. The more Mr Brown exercises the power he connived for so […]

An Independent Inauguration speech – what I’d like President Obama to say

TweetI have never written any kind of speech; certainly not a political speech. The election of Barack Obama to the Presidency has captured the imagination of people around the world. Events in Iraq and Afghanistan, the profound challenges of Global warming and the current chaos in the world financial system demonstrate not only how increasingly […]

The Third Way – Political essay: Blair, Bush, economics, credit crunch, Obama

Tweet(I see little to change in this essay writen in 2005. However we may hope that getting rid of the worst President in American history and the election of Barck Obama may have changed the political/intellectual environment enough for the complexity of the issues to be better understood and therefore that some coherent efforts might […]

Good Night and Good Luck – a rare journalist hero

Tweet Good Night and Good Luck – Director George Clooney Many films are good. Some films are important. Good Night and Good Luck is a rarity – a film that is both. Occasionally a film transcends its medium. Its aspiration demanding appraisal beyond the aesthetic. Cinematically GNAGL is as good as any of its fellow […]