IntenseDebate - David

3 years ago @ http://www.conservativ... - Protecting free speech... · 1 reply · +1 points

Because it is not a waste of time. It strikes at the heart of what a university is for.

3 years ago @ http://www.conservativ... - Protecting free speech... · 3 replies · +1 points

Ms. Gill is absolutely spot on. I say this, as a (very) mature student at one of the more colourful (politically speaking) institutions in British academia. I will make just two comments.

Much of the reluctance by British academics to speak out about the illiberal habits of the 'woke' has to do with their job insecurity. When academics went on strike, this time last year (it feels such a very long time ago), one of their grievances was the growing habit of universities to rely on short-term contracts when hiring academics. So a boat-rocker can be got rid of, without falling foul of employment law. This has implications not just for freedom of speech, but for academic standards. Universities like high pass rates for their student 'customers'. Consequently, academics who insist on rigorous standards can become unpopular very quickly. And we wonder where grade inflation comes from...?

We should not underestimate the persistence and ruthlessness of our opponents. As very recent piece by a Guardian columnist (https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2021/feb/15/tories-war-on-the-woke-ministers-statues-protests) shows, one of the principal weapons that will be used against us is gaslighting. "Wokery? No-platforming? Just a great big fuss about nothing. It's all in your imaginations. Move along please, nothing to see here."

3 years ago @ http://www.conservativ... - Henry Hill: Gove's cha... · 5 replies · +1 points

Precisely so. If the threat, or implicit threat, of violence is what animates the architects of the Brexit settlement, then the Loyalists will draw the obvious conclusions.

It will not, of course, prevent them from becoming the villains of the piece. After all, so far as the Remainers are concerned, no breath of criticism can ever be levelled at the EU (https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2021/feb/07/the-observer-view-on-the-cost-of-brexit-being-huge-just-ask-the-northern-irish), so the criticism currently directed at the British Government will be redirected to the obstreperous Unionists.

We must draw our own conclusions. The EU, by choice, is no friend of Britain. They are impervious to sweet reason and appeals to good neighbourliness. They respond only to force, and the credible threats of force.

3 years ago @ http://www.conservativ... - Instead of EU vaccine ... · 0 replies · +1 points

Spot on. But that's what happens when you get professional politicians and remote, unaccountable bureaucrats. They've no idea how the real world works.

3 years ago @ http://www.conservativ... - Labour's vaccine know-... · 0 replies · +1 points

If anyone should be prioritised, once the elderly have been vaccinated, it should be the most deprived parts of Britain. These are people who are least likely to be able to work comfortably from home (as I am doing right now), those who are likely to be living in overcrowded conditions, and who are least likely to have good overall health.

We would be showing solidarity with the people who are voiceless and usually ignored by the rest of us. It underlines that we really are all in it together.

3 years ago @ http://www.conservativ... - David Gauke: The UK, t... · 0 replies · +1 points

Very well analysed, CdBrux

3 years ago @ http://www.conservativ... - The Good Union · 0 replies · +1 points

“There is reason to believe that his ratings would rise if he becomes seriously and frequently engaged in the arguments.”

Perhaps we need to acknowledge that the SNP's greatest allies are, and always have been, the English politicians.

These are the politicians who are ignorant of Scotland, who think that it's just a weird English region where the men happen to wear skirts. They think 'England' and 'Britain' are interchangeable nouns.

These are the politicians who are too lazy to devote a sustained effort into binding Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland into the Union. If they devoted just 10% of the effort they put into maintaining our relationship with the Americans, the SNP would be dead in the water. For these politicians, the Celtic nations of the UK are 'flyover country'.

3 years ago @ http://www.conservativ... - Vaccines. The United K... · 0 replies · +1 points

I was thinking more along the more neutral lines of 'Europe'. Maybe we should not let our imaginations run away with us!

3 years ago @ http://www.conservativ... - Vaccines. The United K... · 2 replies · +1 points

Here is an interesting problem in the theory and practice of foreign relations.

During a pandemic, country B has plentiful supplies of the vaccine needed to inoculate its population. With the surplus, should country B offer it to:
1. Its friends and allies across the world, to cement existing, friendly relations?
2. The world’s poorest countries, in the name of common humanity?
3. Its neighbour, power-bloc E, whose protectionist instincts and incompetence has left it woefully short of vaccine, and whose leaders have issued threats?

3 years ago @ http://www.conservativ... - Liam Fox: Are we reall... · 0 replies · +1 points

We should be a little kinder to ourselves and our political leaders than we are. We are in the midst of fighting a pandemic. This is something no one has ever attempted before. So we have no templates, no previous experience to guide us.

Effectively, we are in the same position of Sir Robert Peel and his government in the late 1840s. It attempted to fight a famine (in Ireland), which no one had ever tried before. The British Government made mistakes. About a million people died, in horrible circumstances. More famines followed in India, and the British tried (and failed) to fight them, but over time they learned. They produced the Indian Famine Codes. The successors of these codes are used by the UN today. They work.

We can learn how to fight pandemics, and refine our techniques to make as little compromise with personal freedoms and economic growth as possible. We can learn, if we are honest with ourselves about what worked and what didn't. And we need to to this when the present pandemic is over.

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