In a recent episode of PBS’s Religion & Ethics Newsweekly, contributors including Michael Sandel of Harvard University, and Peter Wehner of the Ethics and Public Policy Center, discussed the morality of different approaches to taxation. Watch the episode here. (Video © Educational Broadcasting Corporation)

It seems only reasonable that, when there is no paid work to be had in one area, people should seek employment elsewhere. Recently, when asked whether the unemployed of Merthyr Tydfil should look elsewhere for work, Lord Tebbit (of ‘on yer bike’ fame) replied: ‘Yes, people do have to get up and go… People do […]

There is an interesting article on the Witherspoon Institute’s Public Discourse site by Egyptian journalist Yasser Khalil, who took part in the recent protests in that country. ‘The question that now hangs over Egypt,’ he argues, ‘is whether real freedom is possible, or whether the country inevitably will fall under authoritarian control or the rule […]

Is it the end of the world as we know it? Not quite, but it might be the end of ‘coherent speech’. Clark Whelton, writing in City Journal, chronicles the rise of ‘Vagueness’, ‘the linguistic virus that infected spoken language in the late twentieth century’. Read the article here. (Article © The Manhattan Institute, New […]

Several media outlets over the weekend reported that the British Government is poised to allow civil partnership ceremonies to be held in places of worship and to include religious elements. Under current legislation, ceremonies are forbidden to include religious readings, music, or symbols. A spokesman for the Home Office said that ‘the government is currently […]

From a guest blogger: The Guardian notes that universities ‘could be forced to direct more of their income towards widening access if they fail to meet new targets for admitting state school pupils’. Specifically, it is being suggested that universities may be asked to lower entry requirements for students from poorer backgrounds. Ironically perhaps, it […]

Anthony Daniels spoke recently on the loss of virtue and the financial crisis at the Iona Institute in Ireland, arguing that ‘the current crisis in Ireland, and not just in Ireland, should give rise not just to a search for better policy in the future, though it should certainly do that, but also to soul-searching […]

Trying to define multiculturalism is rather like trying to pin tomato seeds down on a plate.  So it was with some interest that I listened to David Cameron’s much heralded Munich speech in which he argued that ‘the doctrine of state multiculturalism’ had failed, and that Britain needs to foster a stronger sense of shared […]