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Speaker Bercow stood up and made a statement. He did so from his position within an old and respectable institution and what he said was firmly embedded and rooted in tradition. It was not tradition for the sake of tradition but rather the kind of tradition that forms part of an ongoing process of institutional…
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Occasionally a landmark speech turns up in the House of Commons. Ken Clarke’s speech during the Brexit debate on the 31st of January is one of those. A lesson in democracy, representation and history it is a breath of fresh air in a world of fake news and alternative facts. Sadly it seems like politicians…
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Jan Böhmermann hit the international news by offending Turkey’s Erdogan. The Turkish leader had requested that Angela Merkel prosecute Böhmermann under an outdated German law for having dared make fun of him in public. Merkel acquiesced causing widespread indignation among the anti-establishment. Writing on Twitter addressing the Federal Minister of the Chancellery, Böhmermann stated “I would like to live…
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We’re still sitting back and processing the news. Right now there is a shit-storm of cliches being bandied about the place like there is no tomorrow. Post-fact politics reigns supreme and social media banter has definitely taken the upper hand over reasoned discourse. A referendum result fuelled by misinformation could only have a mega-Babel as…