Published on
7 May 2014
Posted in Big Society, British Politics, Culture, Public Policy, Religion
Nigel Farage’s reputation is proving, so The Huffington Post has observed, to have the non-stick qualities of Teflon. However xenophobic, eccentric or clown-like members of his party show themselves to be, UKIP are still set to win big in the forthcoming European elections. In policy terms it is, however, very hard to account for the […]
Published on
24 March 2014
We have argued previously on this blog against Physician-Assisted Suicide (PAS) (here and here). In both instances we sought to make a rational case against based on the premise that helping anyone to end his or her life is contrary to the value of liberty: with destruction of an individual’s life goes destruction of the […]
Published on
11 March 2014
Liberty is a premise upon which physician-assisted suicide is routinely advanced. Some of those suffering from serious and incurable illness or distress seek to argue the case that their suffering is a bondage from which only death can free them. Such suffering is, of course, naturally subjective in the sense that what one person might […]
Published on
28 October 2013
‘We don’t do God’ said Alastair Campbell. In an increasingly secularised world the idea that religion might play any constructive role in public life is ever more considered a relic of the past. Religious institutions are considered at best well-meaning repositories of old thoughts in beautiful buildings the like of which we shall simply not […]
Published on
1 October 2013
With publication of a series of YouGov polls the State’s funding of religious education is once again in the news. Secularists have renewed their assault on all things religious, and public and religious leaders have responded saying that State-backed faith schools are a ‘precious right’ and that it is wrong to drag children into an […]
Published on
23 August 2013
In one way or another the assorted strands of the wide Judeo-Christian tradition have always acknowledged divine revelation as the source of a duty to care for the poor and destitute. Islamic scholars and authoritative sources in many other religious traditions have also emphasised the importance of caring for the poor, arguing that as God’s […]
Published on
12 July 2013
Posted in British Politics, Europe, Human Rights, Moral Philosophy, Morality in Public
In discussing the European Convention on Human Rights (ECHR) it is essential, given current wrangling over matters European, to emphasise that membership of the Council of Europe which drafted the ECHR, and assent to the treaty, are matters quite distinct from that of membership of the European Union. While David Cameron may want to present […]
Published on
10 July 2013
Posted in British Politics, Education, Moral Philosophy, Morality in Public, Virtue
As Labour’s poll ratings plummet following the Unite scandal we have a suitable occasion to ask how some integrity may be injected back into politics. After David Cameron’s evisceration of his own party’s grass-roots there is perhaps an element of balance in watching poor Ed do much the same to Labour’s political base though none […]