Category

1 A difficult question.  If, like me, you would argue that the UK’s parliamentary system, including our electoral practice, isn’t democratic, then the EU is certainly less so.  [For the UK, I would prefer a term such as ‘ecclesiastocracy’, a word I have just made up and meaning... Read More

1 All decisions based on dogma are suspect and most are wrong. [Dogma:  “a belief or set of beliefs that is accepted by the members of a group without being questioned or doubted” (Merriam-Webster).  Most people call these beliefs ‘ideological’.  But, ideology is the study of... Read More

My local rag, the Stroud news and journal, printed this in its edition of 27 april as a news item: A PENSIONER who suffers from a rare condition has thanked a therapist who helped her regain confidence. Joy Alexander, 74, was diagnosed with Ramsay Hunt Syndrome in 2014, making it... Read More

Gary Weinstein I’m so proud.  They’ve graduated!  Well done to them all! Recently our year-long GradStart business and soft skills development programme for young employees finished. Over the past year, I’ve seen a transformation in the young people who joined... Read More

1 The Guardian is currently running series of articles exploring why so many of the comments it receives from readers for publication ‘below the line’ are offensive or are, at best, beside the point or don’t make a point at all [*1].  Apparently moderators remove 2% of... Read More

The right to free speech is not the right to say anything I like The right to free speech is the right to speak freely.  It is the right to be unimpeded by any person or organisation when one wishes to say something. It is not the right for me to say anything I like, whenever I... Read More

In a discussion recently, someone asserted that a belief that God exists is on the same level as a belief that God doesn’t exist;  that these are logical equivalences.  I don’t think that’s true, and here’s why. 1 In 1742, George Frideric Händel—a migrant, as we would now say,... Read More

It depends what you mean by “largest” [*1]. 1  By GDP (nominal) the UK is the fifth (2014 estimate) Nominal GDP [gross domestic product—the value of all final goods and services produced within a state in a given year] does not take into account differences in the cost of living... Read More

On BBC1 television’s panel game, Question time, last Thursday, 26 february 2016, Mr Giles Fraser, a man of God [*1], said: We pay 50 million a day to the EU. We get some of it back, of course when they let us, and in the way they want… It is not for me to comment on the... Read More

The British public is to vote in a referendum on the country’s membership of the European Union.  This blog is about whether a referendum is a suitable way of deciding the question.  Whether or not we should stay is for another time.  It gives my views on why a referendum... Read More