This and that for your Thursday reading. – Owen Jones discusses how an ideology of individualism has undermined both freedom and security for most of the UK’s citizens: There are several reasons why rampant individualism sits at the core of the Tory project. Individualism promotes the idea that our successes
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Accidental Deliberations: Thursday Morning Links
This and that for your Thursday reading. – Phillip Inman and Jill Treanor write about the debt time bomb facing UK households. Jim Edwards discusses how widespread underemployment has become the norm in the UK – making unemployment alone a misleading indicator as to workers’ well-being. And Owen Jones highlights
Continue readingPolitics and its Discontents: This Is Peerless!
The neoliberal agenda is in for a real takedown by Owen Jones here: Recommend this Post
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Saturday Afternoon Links
Assorted content for your weekend reading. – Owen Jones points out Portugal’s example as a demonstration that that there is indeed an alternative to austerity – and that it’s better for public finances as well as for social progress: During the years of cuts, charities warned of a “social emergency”.
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Monday Morning Links
Miscellaneous material to start your week. – Kate Pickett and Richard Wilkinson write that equality of opportunity is an illusion if people don’t have the necessary equality of income to make meaningful plans: British social mobility is damaged by the UK’s high income inequality. Economists have argued that young people
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Thursday Morning Links
This and that for your Thursday reading. – Owen Jones calls out the dogmatic centre for first laying the groundwork for the rise of the populist right, then trying to vilify anybody working on a progressive alternative. And Chris Dillow zeroes in on what’s wrong with the neoliberal view of
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Wednesday Morning Links
Miscellaneous material for your mid-week reading. – Colin Gordon discusses how contempt for democracy is one of the uniting principles of the right around the globe while reviewing Nancy MacLean’s Democracy in Chains: At the intersection of Buchanan’s market fundamentalism and his embrace of Jim Crow lies a fundamental reservation
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Wednesday Afternoon Links
Miscellaneous material for your mid-week reading. – Owen Jones writes that excessive reliance on corporate profiteers is the reason why the UK’s trains don’t run on time. And Nora Loreto argues that postal banking is needed (among other reasons) to rein in abuses by Canada’s biggest banks. – Shannon Daub
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Tuesday Morning Links
This and that for your Tuesday reading. – Owen Jones writes that we should give credit for the failure of the Trans-Pacific Partnership to the popular opposition which will be need to push back against Donald Trump, rather than pretending it represents a win for Trump himself: That Trump has
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Saturday Evening Links
Assorted content for your weekend reading. – Linda McQuaig discusses the hollow promise of “populist” billionaires who ultimately serve only to enrich themselves and their class. And Lana Payne writes about the growing protest movement which culminated in massive rallies around the world this weekend – as well as the
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Miscellaneous material for your weekend reading. – Owen Jones highlights the need for social democratic parties to present a real popular alternative to neoliberal government, and offers his suggestions as to how UK Labour can accomplish that: Political leadership means saying, here’s what’s wrong with society, here’s what our vision
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Wednesday Morning Links
Miscellaneous material for your mid-week reading. – Eshe Nelson interviews Richard Baldwin about the future of globalization and the possibility that the worst disruptions to workers are just beginning: What happens to the chart on global income distribution during this phase of globalization? It keeps going down. It will be
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Thursday Morning Links
This and that for your Thursday reading. – Owen Jones argues that UK Labour needs to make far more effort to connect with working-class citizens in order to hold off the populist right, while Jamelle Bouie examines Jesse Jackson’s presidential campaigns as a worthwhile model for uniting groups of disaffected
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Thursday Morning Links
This and that for your Thursday reading. – Owen Jones highlights the toxic stress and other health problems borne disproportionately by members of the LGBT community who face systematic discrimination. And Tayla Smith and Jaitra Sathyandran discuss how temporary foreign workers (and others facing precarious work situations) tend to suffer
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Monday Morning Links
Miscellaneous material to start your week.- Owen Jones offers his take on how the UK’s Labour Party should proceed following Jeremy Corbyn’s most recent leadership victory – and while the exact circumstances may not apply to the NDP’s upcoming leadersh…
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Tuesday Morning Links
This and that for your Tuesday reading.
– Arthur Neslen points out how new trade agreements figure to make it impossible for governments to meet their environmental commitments. And Corporate Europe Observatory highlights how the CETA will give investors the ability to dictate public policy.
– The Economist discusses the effect of high executive compensation in the U.S., and finds that corporations that shovel exceptionally large amounts of pay to their CEO get sub-par returns for their money.
– Penney Kome writes that the sugar industry’s work to mislead the public about its own health represents just one more example of the dangers of presuming that an undiluted profit motive is anything but antithetical to the public interest.
– On the bright side, Giles Parkinson notes that on a level playing field, solar power has become more affordable than any alternative no matter how dirty.
– Finally, Owen Jones discusses how a strong progressive movement needs to respond to being unfairly dismissed and derided by the corporate media:
Continue readingA defeatist attitude – and a condescending one, too – says that the media programme people with what to think, reducing the electorate to Murdoch-brainwashed zombies. But a clever approach can neutralise media hostility. Take Sadiq Khan: he was subjected to one of the most vicious political campaigns in postwar Britain, portrayed by the press – including London’s dominant newspaper, the Evening Standard – as the pawn of Islamist fundamentalist extremists. He could have bellowed his frustration every single day, and would have been more than entitled to do so. But he didn’t. He focused on a positive, optimistic message, and not only won the election – he had glowing personal ratings, too.
Momentum, too, presented a masterclass last weekend in dealing with hostile media. Rather than taking aggressive swipes at the media, it framed a response to Dispatches before it was even aired. It projected disappointment rather than fury; it gave a platform to Momentum activists who contrasted sharply with the media portrayal; it was witty; and it showcased what it actually did, using the attack as an opportunity to get its own message across. And there is a lesson there. The left is bitterly accustomed to living with almost farcically hostile media in a country where the press is as much a sophisticated political lobbyist as a means of information. A natural response is to become grouchy, to shake fists angrily, or simply boycott the media altogether. It’s an approach that fires up some of the most dedicated leftwing activists, but it’s a strategic mistake. And both Khan and Momentum show the left can rebut media hostility – and even thrive.
Accidental Deliberations: New column day
Here, following up on my earlier column on racism in Saskatchewan with a look at the lessons we can learn from responses to similar issues in Alberta and the U.S. (And no, “do nothing” still isn’t an acceptable answer.)For further reading…- Jesse and…
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Tuesday Morning Links
This and that for your Tuesday reading.- Owen Jones discusses the importance of the labour movement in ensuring that workers can get ahead in life, rather than drowning in debt:Nights spent staring at the ceiling as worries dance manically around the …
Continue readingMontreal Simon: When the Right Wing Media Tries to Deny the Reality of Homophobia
I attended this memorial in Toronto last night to remember the victims of the Orlando massacre.And although it was a beautiful peaceful event, afterwards I couldn't help but notice the anger of some of the LGBT people who attended.Anger over the …
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Sunday Morning Links
This and that for your Sunday reading.- David Akin reports that MPs from multiple parties are rightly challenging offshore tax evasion – though it remains to be seen how many will actually demand a change to the practice. And Tanya Tagala notes that it…
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