Via Calls for a referendum on EU membership after David Cameron’s U-turn on tax | World news | The Observer: Tory and Labour MPs believe that if the eurozone moves towards a single tax system – as chancellor George Osborne advocated again – then the EU will become a fundamentally […]
Read MorePost Tagged with: "Peace"
Sri Lanka update
A number of my constituents have contacted me about the situation in Sri Lanka and the allegations of war crimes. I wrote to Alistair Burt, Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for the Foreign and Commonwealth Office, seeking more information. He recently replied as follows: The UK wants to see lasting peace […]
Read MoreA campaign for one day of peace or how I met Jude Law
Via my article A campaign for one day of peace » The Cobden Centre: As Member of Parliament for Wycombe, I am acutely aware of the widespread consequences of armed conflict on individuals across the world. For example, many of my constituents hail from Kashmir and Pakistan and their extended families […]
Read MoreTony Blair and the Kellogg-Briand Pact
Via The Telegraph: Tony Blair sidelined the Cabinet over the decision to invade Iraq because he feared ministers would leak sensitive material to the press, the head of the civil service has said. For the moment, this speaks for itself and to the nature of the Blair government, but I’m looking […]
Read MoreIs it teatime?
Tuesday will see the USA hold midterm elections. According to The Telegraph: Tea Party candidates are poised to storm Washington in the midterm elections, when the conservative movement should win enough seats to form a powerful minority able to push its political agenda. The key elements of the Tea Party […]
Read MoreThe hopeful path between denial and despair is the reinvention of Britain
Via BT ruling could open pension claim floodgates – Telegraph: Taxpayers could be on the hook for tens of billions of pounds to cover a string of privatised companies’ pension schemes after the precedent set by BT’s landmark “crown guarantee” victory. What next, I wonder? Between the Institute of Economic Affairs, […]
Read MoreHow to transform a nation in ten steps
Brought forward. I was challenged last night to advocate flat taxes. Here’s one of my previous posts which does so. Another is here (you will have to forgive the oversize graphs). The Georgian recipe for “an amazing transformation”: Low and flat taxes Legislative commitment to reducing the government’s fiscal footprint […]
Read MoreOn self-ownership – whose property are you?
In response to my remarks on the illegitimacy of banning particular items of clothing, I have been criticised for asserting the concept of self-ownership: the idea that each of us has an inviolable property right in our own person. It turns out this is a difficult concept: Property is the […]
Read MoreOpenEurope
I met today with the excellent think tank OpenEurope, along with other MPs of various parties: Open Europe is an independent think tank, with offices in London and Brussels, set up by some of the UK’s leading business people to contribute bold new thinking to the debate about the direction […]
Read MoreAn invitation to consider some fundamental questions
I have often said that politics is, or should be, a serious conversation about society. Here are some fundamental questions to consider: Should society be organised by peaceful or forceful means? Who owns each person’s life? That is, is your life your own? Ethically, can you compel people to do […]
Read More
