Are all Americans deserving of the right to healthcare? Yes — Universal healthcare systems should mean free access for all at the point of delivery, focused on protecting public health, and funded via general taxation. No — No-one should ever…
If you want to know what makes Britain tick, take a look at the Bank of England. Interlocking directorships and the Old Boy Network still dominate public life as its recent appointment of Charlotte Hogg reveals. But few media commentators ever refer to this as a…
Every society has its customs. Harvest seasonally celebrates good weather and a community’s ability to feed itself. And mating rituals, often hierarchical, involve male displays of physical excellence and material resourcefulness to attract reproductive females. But when societies code their rules using abstract tools like language then inherent…
I don’t remember many calls to scrap the National Living Wage before the Brexit vote. Maybe the government think such a policy might come in useful when we have to negotiate with the EU. But Brussels doesn’t seem keen on letting Brexit Britain…
Donald Trump’s Administration has taken another step toward becoming a full dictatorship by banning the BBC and several other ‘dishonest media’ from the White House’s daily briefing. The President’s favourites far-right Breitbart, Rupert Murdoch’s Fox Network, and even Turkish State Media were…
Going round the room this morning I asked people where they were from. Krys, from Poland, said he had lived in South America for 24 years. I asked him if he was an Engineer. “No, I am a missionary.” Christ,…
In-Formation. Sing-Chronised. Articles. Periodicals. Pay-Peer-(Re)View. Proper Telly-vised
Harrumph. Given that no-one actually reads this blog it will come as no surprise that my attempts at conventional blogging are to be abandoned in favour of a more relaxed stream of consciousness perhaps in line with whatever I was doing…
How can the Chief Political Correspondent and Deputy Political Editor of The Telegraph put their names by this muck? Desperate stuff to get UKIP Leader Paul Nuttall into Parliament.
In September the Radical Housing Network revealed that government money originally earmarked for protecting vulnerable tenants from unscrupulous landlords is being used to fund deportation raids. The following pieces appeared in RT and VICE. This is how the Daily Mail spin it: Below…
The President was rude to Jewish and African American reporters yesterday, uttered untruths about his election results, and was combative when asked about about his campaign’s contact with Russia. He also contradicted himself over the sacking of senior adviser Mike…
According to Dale Purves what we hear is often determined by our Darwinian programming which filters out sounds that don’t help us reproduce. Purves points to the McGurk Effect: How does this apply to modern politics? As mentioned in a previous post Lord Ashcroft has released…
Bins financial regulation & consumer protection Extreme Vetting, But Not for Banks – Rolling Stone — Matt Taibbi (@mtaibbi) February 3, 2017 But there is some hope, Government Sachs are facing some resistance outside their offices. .@GoldmanSachs security &…
Shelves could be full of cheap American meat in UK supermarkets within two years. What does the meat industry think of the UK-US trade deal. — Oscar Rousseau (@OscarRousseau) 3 February 2017 Was the Brexit vote a vote for growth…
I came across Transatlantic Aliens in the bookshop today. The blurb referred to the cultural contribution made by Europeans who moved to the US in the 1930s and 1940s. By looking at how celebrated outsiders such as Theodor Adorno, Simone…
Max Keiser says Trump’s Infrastructure Plan Seduces Unions Max Keiser tells how Trump is seducing unions with his infrastructure plans and dropping TPP. Max Keiser to run in North Carolina In mid-January Max Keiser said he will announce his official…
Special Relationship with Trump At yesterday’s press conference May talked about NATO and ISIS but chose not to mention the bonfire of rights and regulations and the deeper privatisation of NHS services and imminent entry of GM food, pesticides, cloned…
This is their way of helping UKIP Leader Paul Nuttall destroy the Labour party in the North. Could this backfire on the entire country? The election is on February 23rd. It had been rumoured that the Tories would field a…
Tories to join forces with UKIP, say Huff Post sources The Conservative Party has struck a deal with UKIP and won’t field a candidate in the upcoming Stoke by-election, it was alleged yesterday. The story, reported by Martha Gill of…
As far as Donald Trump is concerned UK laws, like women’s private parts, are all up for grabs. He’s acquisitive by nature — so where are we headed? The Front Page of Today’s Telegraph is looking all excited about new US jobs. TELEGRAPH: May trade deal…
In November 2015 Theresa May was being lined up to lead the Out campaign. Nigel Farage said he’d have been delighted had she accepted. What side are you on? But then she backed Remain. In the speech she gave to…
Was Barack Obama Bad for Democrats? It appears that Republicans listen better than Democrats! Or did Obama and the Clintons simply not pay enough attention to US unions?
National Grid sells 61% stake in gas arm to Macquarie/CIC consortium – via @FT
Now that OPEC are cutting production to stop Oil prices from falling through the floor, will Mr. Trump & Theresa May usher in an age of Peak Renewable? Renewables require government subsidies, but governments give bigger tax breaks to…
Donald Trump: Nigel Farage would do great job as Britain’s US ambas… via
ALEC The American Legislative Exchange Council are in the ascendant. Most Brits don’t even know who they are. But they hold the real clout around here. Trump Aide: Japanese Internment Camps are Precedent for a Muslim Registry White America…
The Devolution agenda: Outsource the cuts. Outsource the liability for the much needed infrastructure spend. Overrule councils if they dont do as they’re told. Otherwise give them full freedom. Freedom to get into debt. To sign LOBOs and PFI deals.…
Makes perfect sense. Have Fox ever loved Hillary? Imagine Murdoch wanting to deal with May and Hillary. Why wouldn’t he prefer Trump, Corbyn and McDonnell? Similar overall view of the world but from different perspectives. Most people recruit in their…
EU and Canada sign deal amid fears about future of trade policy – via @FT What prospects for a UK trade deal with either EU or Canada? Both know how desperate UK is to sign a deal.
How star central banker Mark Carney turned into a Brexit target – via @FT Did Roy Hodgson or Fabio Capella come under this kind of sustained pressure to go? Who could they possibly replace him with? Or is the…
Health and safety prosecutions treble in a year – via @FT Figures found via FOI by a law firm
FCA accuse Sunday Telgraph of laundering RBS's reputation as FCA continues to . . . launder RBS's reputation.
Carney out Farage in. Tory press are committing treason by not holding this shambolic government to account.
Lord Farage
Deconstructing the contradictions in Saturday's Guardian and a primer on Trumpy climate denial vs Clinton Greenwash.
Fallon Bypasses Brexit to Block EU Army Sir Michael Fallon has been unmasked as one of the UK’s biggest security threats. The FT has dug up a document addressed to the Defence Minister by General Sir Richard Barrons, the recently-retired head of the country’s Joint Forces…
Post-Brexit EU Reform Two groups of EU countries are banding together to call for stricter internal and external border controls and an end to austerity at the first full post-Brexit EU meeting in Bratislava on Friday. Club Med Last Friday…
Attention This week Japan wrote an open letter threatening Britain with divorce. The Japanese government said its firms could quit UK over Brexit-related uncertainty. [gview file=”http://londonconversation.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/09/japan-letter-1.pdf”] And the Financial Times advised British companies to pay attention. A Call to ARMs But despite this, Japan’s SoftBank snapped…
What phone have you got? Apple / Samsung / Something Else Have you had it long? New / Less than a year / More than a Year Has it always worked? Yes / No What do you do…
Strange to see FT’s resident Bilderberger Martin Wolf attacking University reform last week. Anthony Seldon is often quoted in the Sunday Times as an Education and Happiness Expert. He is Blair and Cameron’s official biographer and believes in “student experience”.…
Vaz Quits Pillar of the establishment, Keith Vaz, has just resigned his position after being caught paying rent boys to have sex with him in his £2 million North London home. After the recent “Brexit” coup d’état the May…
Crick Institute — Charity or Business? With funding from several Health Trusts, Universities, and Research Institutes, the £650m Crick Institute is a registered charity and will have 1000 scientists and 250 support staff by the end of the year. The…
UK Universities are adopting aggressive marketing strategies to compete in the Global Higher Education supermarket according to today’s Sunday Times. As well as offering free masters, iPads, and Premier League Football tickets, Universities are also incentivising overseas students to recruit…
The Sunday Times claim a leaked document has revealed that David Cameron and Oliver Letwin wanted to “cap taxes for the banks”. According to the leaked memo Letwin endorsed Cameron’s plans for an “aggregated City tax take” which would have prevented…
Those whom the gods wish to destroy, they first make mad. Handing €1.1 trillion of public money to ANONYMOUS bankers with no publicly available audit trail is an act so corrupt as to be beyond comprehension. Yet that is what…
Jeremy Corbyn delighted Remain Boss, Roland Rudd, with his multiple TV appearances & speeches in the run-up to the EU referendum vote. Rudd admitted this on Bloomberg TV two days before the vote. The exact quote is at 3m 37s:…
It is well known that Tony Blair has friends in high places and that, legally speaking, he knows how to get away with anything. Teflon Tony He is known as Teflon Tony because, although bad things are said about him,…
Oliver “Deregulation Bill” Letwin has been appointed head of the Number 10 Brexit Unit. In this Defence Select Committee video taken today he is questioned about the forthcoming Brexit negotiations. Given that he is ex-Rothschild and the author of a…
How does scaling benefit London? Does the same principle apply to Brussels? Should power in Brussels really be seen as so much worse than in London? Izabella Kaminska asked Geoffrey Brian West at the FT’s Festival of Finance.
