Of course the issue in mass surveillance is the balance between intrusiveness and the destruction of privacy on the one hand and the overriding need to protect a country from real and serious threats to its security. After both Hague and Obama initially gave po-faced defences of the spies as subject to all necessary supervision, […]
Posts Tagged ‘US’
Snowden fugitive saga distracts attention from real unanswered issues
Jul 1st, 2013 by Michael Meacher.The Sunday Times Rich List – the antidote
Apr 26th, 2013 by Jon Lansman.The best antidote I have seen to the annual Sunday Times Rich List! A beautiful film illustration of the realities of wealth inequality. And in order to eliminate inequality, we don’t have to change the distribution to what most people regard as the ideal. We only have to change it to what people think it […]
Will we adapt to a multipolar world, or face endless war?
Feb 22nd, 2013 by Jenny Clegg.Ten years ago this week, 100,000 American troops were assembled in Kuwait as the US and UK were poised to strike, the neocons driving them on to “seize the unipolar moment”; the UN Security Council was split; and at London’s biggest demonstration ever, the crowds had heard Tony Benn’s call: “Another world is possible”. Ten […]
Same-sex marriage – going global?
Feb 20th, 2013 by Jon Lansman.(Now Updated) When Laura Bush, Colin Powell and Dick Cheney come out for same-sex marriage, you know the tide is turning. Respect for Marriage Coalition describes itself as “a partnership of more than 80 civil rights, faith, health, labor, business, legal, LGBT, student, and women’s organizations working together to end the Defense of Marriage Act […]
Don’t (cry for me) pay up now, Argentina
Nov 29th, 2012 by Ann Pettifor.“I had to let it happen I had to change Couldn’t stay all my life down at heel Looking out of the window Staying out of the sun So I chose freedom” (lyrics – Tim Rice) Few of our readers (we suspect) will have heard of NML Capital Ltd – a company which today is […]
There’s nothing to stop another financial crash
Sep 12th, 2012 by Michael Meacher.One of the great unspoken scandals of the post-2007 financial crash era is that no reform of the banking system has been put in place, though domestically the bank bail-out will cost UK taxpayers some £1.4 trillions by 2015 and globally the crash nearly collapsed the world economy. Despite those gigantic detriments, 5 years on […]
Paul Ryan’s nasty lesson for Britain
Aug 19th, 2012 by Michael Meacher.The arrival of Paul Ryan on the US Presidential scene not only has big implications for that election in November (perhaps the opponent that Obama really wanted), but also casts interesting light on the British political situation. Ryan’s plan is based on the now regular US Republican device of unfunded tax cuts – a device […]
Paul Ryan: already the winner on Wall Street
Aug 15th, 2012 by David Osler.Check out the cleancut visage, the powder blue shirt/white T shirt combo and the family photographs featuring beautiful wife and three wholesome kiddies. Check out the seamless progression from PPE degree to elected office, pausing only for the obligatory stint as a special adviser cum think tank wonk. Paul Ryan emblemises a political type now instantly familiar […]