Tag: United Kingdom
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20 years ago in Glasgow
More than 20 years ago, Glasgow had more than its fair share of comfortable coffee shops. Several were lodged in bookshops, and one in particular pulls it’s way across time, sliding it’s memory-laden charge along neurones and drops me into an overstuffed chair in a little alcove. I’ve got a small table next to me,…
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Is there something that US have and the UK should have/do it too?
I’m not entirely sure I understand the question. It’s pretty broad. I think the US has things that make it what it is, some of them good, many poor; but a direct one-for-one swap would not—from my perspective—necessarily bring the benefits they might have in the US. There is, for example, a culture of respect…
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As a sort of foreigner, what do you think of this election campaign?
I’m not sure how to frame a response to this one… I’ve lived in the UK for all but a few months of my voting-eligible life, and this is not the first general election I’ve been present for. I remember watching the Swing-o-meter and wrapping my head around marginal constituencies, door-to-door canvassing, and the implied…
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The Enlightenment was centuries ago. Why do you think people still cling to outmoded ways of explaining the world, such as religion?
I don’t see history as linearly-progressive. I believe we learn much from our past, and value history. Our story is an accumulation of our thoughts, our lives and our predecessors’ ways of living: and it contains many, many truths. We don’t always learn from the past, and often forget what used to be known. There…
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Digital Economy Bill
A couple weeks ago, I wrote to my MP to raise concern for the so-called “washup” of last-minute legislation being used to push through the now highly-controversial “Digital Economy Bill.” My reasons to write are several, and I will devote some more time to explain these later, but wanted to post my MP’s response verbatim…
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Democracy and the Web: the UK gets it while America tries to control it.
I read yesterday that twitter has been banned from the White House. In the post, Marshall Kirkpatrick joked that this could be a reason we haven’t seen much from Obama’s twitter stream recently. I must admit however, my initial reaction was sympathetic with the White House for pragmatic reasons, though the attitude of the Press…