Thinking Beyond The Curriculum
Read More“As a philosopher it’s hard to follow the logic around Covid policy because in many cases there simply isn’t any. There is only the illusion of logic. A symbolic nod to a vague sense of health and safety which doesn’t dare follow its own argument to a conclusion for fear of what that conclusion might say.“
Read More“it is not enough to just not be racist (or sexist, or homophobic, or transphobic) in a world which has racism, sexism, homophobia and transphobia built in to its very fabric. We have to do more.”
Read More“This is the fundamental foundation of capitalism. It is not the ‘freedom’ of the (not so free) free market or the liberality you get from a government or the ethical right to keep what is yours – it is the simplicity in caring for oneself. “
My new book - Authentic Democracy: An Ethical Justification of Anarchism - is out now as an e-book on Amazon and out in paperback from May 11th. Pre-order now from the publisher, Tippermuir Books, or from Amazon.
Read MoreRead More“By clapping, was I supporting the myth, the propaganda, and the lies which have put so many unnecessarily in harm’s way during this crisis? From the unprotected nurse to their dying patient, infected because they couldn’t stay home for fear of losing their job - each a victim not of Covid-19, but of our political system?”
Read More“the world has changed. And here are the questions arising to me as it does…”
Read More“In the name of public health, but also sense and logic, we must close all UK schools now.”
Read More“A teacher therefore has a duty to model democratic engagement to their students. A teacher not discussing an upcoming election or not having an opinion on the current political situation sends a negative message to their students that political engagement is not important.”
Read More“There is a truth out there, beneath the soundbites and clickbait. There are actual facts about what our politicians have done and what they are planning to do and it is our duty as citizens, whoever we are voting for, to make sure our vote is as fully informed as is possible. A television debate will never give us that. They are nothing more than a PR stunt. Another stop on the campaign trail. A mechanism for repeating buzzwords and talking points. To treat them as anything more than that is to abdicate our democratic responsibilities and leave ourselves open for manipulation and propaganda.”
Read More“The reason we see lifetime terms as undemocratic is because it is built into the fabric of a democracy that one vote is not enough. The mood of the nation is checked every four or five years for them to reconfirm their last electoral decision, or change their minds about the direction they want their country to go in. There seems no good reason to me why that same principle does not apply for something as significant as Brexit.”
Read More'“Since when did kids have the right to get annoyed at adults, break rules and even participate in Non Violent Direct Action? It happened when you, the generations above me, chose not to act seriously on the climate crisis. The science has been around for 30 years, that’s 30 years of allowing emissions to rise uncontrollably. If people had acted back then, we wouldn’t need to strike now. But they didn’t. You didn’t.”
Read More“Either the monarch is sovereign or the people are. It cannot be both.”
Read More“If each of our experiences of the world are isolated within a personal island of subjective qualia, then no two people can know for sure whether they experience the world in the same way. What this means for identity politics, is that the underlying notion that Muslims can talk about Islamophobia, the LGBT community about homophobia, non-white ethnic groups about racism, and women about sexism (etc.) with an authority that is lacking from a “non-member” of each group falls apart. Every woman will experience living as a woman in a patriarchal world uniquely; every person who has been discriminated against because of their race, sexuality or religion has felt that hurt without peer.”
Read More“The argument gaining traction over the last twenty-four hours seems to be this: when Theresa May resigned, she cried, but such tears must be ignored and not generate sympathy because she didn’t first cry for the victims of Windrush, Grenfell, public services cuts, and the environment. She cried only for herself.”