Concrete Achievements

Blog

  • Isn’t history long?

    Just reading a history of the end of the Roman Empire (by Peter Heather, very good), and in a discussion of Attila’s campaigns in Greece, he says that raiding parties went as far south as

    Thermopylae, where Leonidas’s troops had fought the Persians almost a thousand years before

    and I was stunned by the sudden realisation of the passage of historical time – that Leonidas and the Persian wars were farther away from Attila and the last days of Western Roman Empire than the Norman Conquest is from us today.

    And the Eastern Empire had a further thousand years to run. Sudden perspective. Whoa.

  • Well, you can always hope, I guess

    How are the right-wing headbangers at Free Republic reacting to John McCain’s presumptive nomination as Republican candidate? Not well. Here’s a hopeful soul elsewhere on the site answering the question ‘what now?’:

    For me, since I’m an Arizona resident, it’s pretty simple. I start agitating for Senator McCain to drop out and endorse a strong conservative dark horse candidate at the convention. I will continually remind him that he himself said that it is critical to the good of the country that the Dems not get in the White House and that he must ensure that by making sure a true conservative option is available to the country.
    Refusing to do so is putting his own ambition above the good of the country. The country deserves his sacrifice again. I hope that his honor reminds him of this.

    Also, some Freepers are still using GWOT unironically. Welcome to 2008, guys! Tired martial rhetoric goes in the corner over there.

  • Is it only sixteen years since Maastricht

    It gave us the Euro, the European Union (rather than the European Communities) and common foreign and security policies, and all without a referendum. Thanks, Conservative party! BBC article.

  • French referendum campaigners are different

    Le Monde reports on a pro-referendum demonstration coming up tomorrow near Paris, and it’s interesting that the people calling for a referendum in France are the anti-business, pro-regulation brigade. Yes, the treaty is just too Anglo-Saxon and too liberalising, so there has to be a referendum, say the protesters (because of their deep personal commitment to direct democracy, of course).

  • She’d rather get nekkid than eat meat, probably

    So this is weird, as campaigns go. PETA – animal rights group who bang on about vegetarianism a lot – have got a “State of the Union” address on their website that involves some cutie talking about how meat is bad while removing all her clothes.

    It does make it a bit hard to concentrate. The video is on Wonkette.

    Apparently they did it last year, too.

  • The European Xenophobic Union

    Now here’s an odd contradiction: four parties from the European far right have come together in the European Parliament to propose a new pan-European party of ultra-nationalists. They need three other parties to join them for the party to get party rights in the Parliament, but their eventual goal is to have a member party in each state of the Union. Then they can presumably all join hands and hate each other. (BBC).

  • MPs show their deep personal commitment to democracy

    A number of MPs have renewed calls for a referendum on the EU constitution, reports the BBC. This is, of course, because of their deep personal commitment to direct democracy. The fact that a lot of the public happen to agree with their personal views on the constitution is entirely irrelevant.

    Their deep personal commitment to direct democracy has outweighed the fact that a referendum on the EU treaty would be conducted in the pages of a ragingly paranoid press, and in an atmosphere where rational debate and consideration appears to be absolutely impossible.

    It should also be noted that all those in favour of a referendum on the treaty are either Euro-sceptics or whatever you call people who want to declare war on Germany. But this is obviously just one of those remarkable coincidences. The only thing that brings them together is their deep personal commitment to direct democracy.

  • 20/20 Politics

    Douglas Carswell wants to cut down on boring speeches in the Commons and spend more time holding Government to account, according to . Interesting idea: if they can introduce Westminster Hall for extra debating, why not introduce extra scrutiny?

    18 January 2008

  • Gripping stuff

    This is the lead story in the Wadhurst parish council newsletter.

    Queen’s Cottages: The Planning Inspector allowed the appeal against the Planning Application refused by the District & Parish Councils and granted outline planning permission for the proposed development subject to a number of conditions. A link to the full document is in the News section of the Parish Council web site

  • The International Order and China

    Really interesting article in Foreign Affairs this month, sets out very clearly the importance of building a liberal international order that can accommodate the rise of China rather than try and resist it. The article is mostly about the US, as is natural given its source, but there is a great deal that Europe needs to do to prepare for the new multi-polar world.