There is much debate currently taking place on the issue of whether or not the UK should build a new generation of nuclear power plant. The debate focuses on two issues: is nuclear (fission) safe and do we actually need nuclear power in the first place.
In this article I will set aside the safety question and instead address why we need nuclear power enough, so much so that the safety question has to be seriously considered and cannot just be dismissed on principle. (more…)
Ever since the stuffy cultural pinnacle that was Victorian Britain, this country has been cautiously emolliating many of our most latent taboos – from exposing seemingly-lubricious piano legs (it is believed some Victorians covered them up) to legalising same-sex relationships. Although more self-critical dialogue is still needed in the majority of these categories, one prosaic taboo which still remains conspicuously ignored is that of death. The relative lack of progress in this area can be partly explained by the grip of our instinctual fears, deeply-embedded religious doctrines, and the heart-felt sensitivity of this gargantuan and complex issue. However whilst there is a lot at stake, there is also a lot to gain.
The idea for this piece has been rattling around in my notebook for a while now, but it seems particularly timely to finally get it out. Part One is on Twitter in general (if you’re familiar, then I’d advise you skip over it), and the second is my take on what’s gone on in the last week.
If anyone is interested, you can find me @liannedemello.
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I’ve been questioned countless times by friends on ‘the point of’ Twitter. Why would you want a poor man’s version of Facebook, without the photos, walls or applications and with a limit on what you can say? Isn’t it merely a mirror for masses of narcissistic wannabes to post vacuous and mundane details of their lives?
To some extent, yes.
But there is a whole lot more to Twitter, and the thing I try to impart to people is that it is what you make of it.
“First there was a bad man, then there was another bad man, now we have Tony Blair.” So says ‘Tony 2012‘, the new documentary which is taking the internet by storm since its sudden release one month ago. The film, which charts the crimes of British-born warlord Tony Blair and his radical New Labour Party [...]
This is the final part of a series of four pieces about Anti-Semitism and the Left. The other parts can be viewed here: 1, 2 and 3. While the Left’s tendency to single Israel out is, in my opinion, the combination of misunderstood and misused post-Zionism, and a crude anti-colonialism, this does not mean that [...]
The Department for Education has announced controversial plans to phase in £9,000 a year ‘tuition fees’ for children attending primary school. Michael Gove, the education minister led the announcement by saying that the changes were crucial in his plans for creating ‘internationally-competitive primary schools’ with would ‘attract the world’s brightest and best four-year olds’. The [...]
This is the third of four pieces about Anti-Semitism and the Left. The other parts can be viewed here: 1, 2 and shortly 4. In the ‘Introduction’ to Orientalism (1978), his fierce attack on Western perceptions of the East, Edward Said sets out a tripartite definition of Orientalism. The second definition is as follows, Orientalism is a style of thought [...]
Last week the Washington Post published the results of a phone survey of 1900 adults, on a range of issues, with individuals identified by gender and race. This weekend’s Observer published a follow-up article by Victoria Coren giving her interpretation of these findings. The general thrust was: According to this poll’s results, American black women tend to have higher self-esteem are [...]
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