Photo by CardMapr.nl on Unsplash Having cancelled five national conferences because of Covid and then the death of Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth, the UK Liberal Democrats finally took to the stage last week. Leader Sir Ed Davey’s speech met with strong applause, but when he delivered the line “If you…
Author: Philip Bushill-Matthews
A Slogan Superpower
Photo by Markus Spiske on Unsplash The UK Government loves catchy slogans. From “Getting Brexit Done”, through the Covid campaign of “Hands, Face, Space” and now the latest asylum plan of “Stop the Boats”, slogans are a great substitute for action. As the Conservatives struggle in the polls the slogans are getting longer, such as the objective of…
High Speed Rail Goes Slow
Photo by Winston Chen on Unsplash Following his invention of the Rocket, in 1829 Robert Stephenson inaugurated the first inter-city railway in the world: connecting Liverpool and Manchester in the country’s northern manufacturing heartland was an obvious priority. Since then other countries have leapt into the future with high speed trains, while the UK struggles with one of…
The Politics of Woke
Photo by Nick Fewings on Unsplash Exactly 100 years ago, university students across Germany burnt over 25,000 books which the Nazi regime considered ‘degenerate’. Joseph Goebbels, aptly-titled Minister for Popular Enlightenment and Propaganda, harangued the crowd at the Opernplatz in Berlin saying: “No to decadence and moral corruption: Yes to decency and morality in family and state!” The…