History today

History today

For me the single most significant event this millenium is the great financial crisis. I think it led to an expectation for the electorate that bailouts for the banks would become de rigueur for all companies if they ever got into difficulties and when non banks weren’t bailed out that led to resentment, particularly as living standards didn’t improve. I think it explains in part things like Brexit and Trump. TSE

This poll is barking

This poll is barking

This poll from More in Common is utterly barking in my view, the two best breeds, Huskies and Malamutes, aren’t listed. I’d love to know why Green voters think a poodle would be the best PM. TSE

Could becoming a republic be the only way to keep Scotland in the Union?

Could becoming a republic be the only way to keep Scotland in the Union?

Yesterday an interesting piece of polling was published INDEPENDENCE support would rise to 59% from 54% if it meant Scotland would be a republic, a new poll shows. Support for independence was found to have risen to 54% when undecided voters are excluded earlier this month in poll commissioned by The Times following the Scottish Budget. Campaign group Believe in Scotland (BiS) commissioned pollsters Norstat to ask the same panel if Scotland removing the King as head of state would affect how they…

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Is Trump seeking to enter Gödel’s loophole?

Is Trump seeking to enter Gödel’s loophole?

A philosopher, an economist and a physicist walked into a courtroom.  They could have left behind an amusing punchline; instead, the legacy of their visit was an uncertainty – which seems appropriate in the circumstances. The philosopher was Kurt Gödel and he was there for his citizenship test as part of his application to become an American citizen in 1947.  It should have been a formality.  Gödel had been living in the United States since 1940, working at Princeton after…

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That don’t impress me much

That don’t impress me much

When it comes to Kemi Badenoch the public appear to be channelling Shania Twain and her seminal track ‘That don’t impress me much’, they are similarly unimpressed by the Tories. The latter finding isn’t that surprising considering the Tories suffered their worst general election defeat since Methuselah was a lad and the former finding isn’t surprising either given that Kemi Badenoch was a prominent member of the last government. What must sting for Kemi Badenoch is that she is doing…

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