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UK Politics

The idea that the poor should have leisure and a holiday from work has always been shocking to the rich. In the early nineteenth century, fifteen hours was the ordinary day's work for a man; children sometimes did as much, and very commonly did twelve hours a day. When meddlesome busybodies suggested that perhaps these hours were rather long, they were told that work kept adults from drink and children from mischief. When I was a child, shortly after urban working men had acquired the vote, certain public holidays were established by law, to the great indignation of the upper classes. I remember hearing an old Duchess say: 'What do the poor want with holidays? They ought to work.' People nowadays are less frank, but the sentiment persists, and is the source of much of our economic confusion.

Bertrand Russell
December 31, 2023

[Libertarians are like] house cats. They are convinced of their fierce independence while utterly dependent on a system they don’t appreciate or understand.

John Spaulding
December 23, 2023

If there's any lesson to be learned from the unfolding climate disaster and 28 COP failures, it's that as long as governments cede power to corporations and billionaires, and as long as those corporations and billionaires make money from ecological destruction, then ecological destruction is what we get.

Peter Gleick
December 9, 2023

A pathology of conservativism is that 'things used to be simple.' No, you used to be a kid. Your parents shielded you from life's complexity. Things are complex because you're an adult now. Conservativism is the desire to be a child.

Cory Doctorow
October 23, 2023

Fascism begins the moment a ruling class, fearing the people may use their political democracy to gain economic democracy, begins to destroy the political democracy in order to retain its power of exploitation and special privileges.

Tommy Douglas
January 18, 2023

There will be a lot of talk in the coming days about [Boris] Johnson’s achievements - how he ‘delivered’ Brexit and ‘took the right decisions’ during the pandemic. Yet Brexit has only been delivered in the sense that a flat-pack piece of furniture is delivered. It hasn’t been assembled yet because it won’t fit through the front door, several of the pieces are missing and the instructions are in Russian. More ominously for Johnson, the public inquiry into the pandemic will soon be up and running and the bereaved will want to know why he presided over one of the highest Covid death rates in Europe.

Billy Bragg
July 11, 2022

Stipulating that we have no idea how this will turn out, it is worth tallying some of the surprises thus far.
Apparent lack of punch in Russian initial attack, to include on Ukrainian air forces; ineffective airborne assaults and spetsnaz raids; ferocity of Ukrainian resistance in depth.
Unanimity of western response, to include arms supplies (e.g. Sweden of all places), and Germans not only participating in sanctions, but deciding to lay out double their annual defense budget. This on top of demonstrations, etc.
Extent of sanctions, to include suspending SWIFT, and much more; closing of air space to Russian aircraft, and the general move to make Russia a pariah state. This includes denunciations from, e.g. Kenya and other non-European states.
Western and Ukrainian superiority in the information warfare realm -- to include heartening videos and stories, pictures of Russian soldiers looting or being pushed around by Ukrainian civilians, etc. all on top of effective release of US and allied intel before the crisis.
What appears to be considerable Ukrainian tactical successes against Russian armored columns, and serious problems with the battalion tactical groups which we have heard so much about.
A variety of forms of opposition to the war being expressed in Russia, which takes considerable courage on the part of those doing it. Including more muted criticisms from within the elite.
The leadership qualities of President Zelensky, grossly underestimated by a lot of Western analysts.
And I could go on. The point is that analysts who were (a) mesmerized by Russian hardware; (b) impressed by Russian doctrine; (c) inclined to pessimism about Western democracy in general and the willingness to push back of our leaders missed a great deal.
Instead, some old truths, all found in Clausewitz and Tolstoy, viz., the moral element matters in war, as do the decisions of many individuals; that the fog of war exists; that war is the domain of surprise; and that it is about interaction, not mechanical planning.
Finally: we do not know how this will unfold, but one does sense that history is moving remarkably quickly here. And - at great cost in human suffering - the outcome may be the end of the road for a brutal dictator, and renewed confidence in free institutions. One hopes. [https://threadreaderapp.com/thread/1498026780204191747.html]

Eliot A. Cohen
February 27, 2022