Social democracy is in retreat. In the past two weeks alone, two left-wingers have taken over the German SDP and Romania’s SD Party suffered its worst electoral defeat ever.

So why have voters deserted social democrats and how could they be won back? At a Civitas talk on Friday, Labour Leaver and avowed social democrat John Mills had some suggestions:

It is a peculiar trend in today’s politics that as the Tories move to the Left on borrowing and spending, what remains of the centre-Left is running to the Right on the same issue. Indeed, John Mills’ talk of economic growth, deficit reduction and the 1970s sound more like something out of the 2015 Conservative Manifesto than any kind of social democratic platform. ...  Continue reading

I wanted to interview Jonathan Rowson for Confessions because he says such interesting things about concentration. As a chess grandmaster, you would expect as much. And in an age of constant distraction with mobile phones and advertising constantly jostling for our headspace, the need for us to separate ourselves from so much noise pollution is more pressing than ever — especially at this time of year. “Concentration is freedom,” he says. Sounds a little bit like prayer to me.

The political philosopher Matthew B Crawford begins his extraordinary take on the importance of concentration in The World Beyond Your Head by reflecting upon the way we are bombarded with attention-demanding TV screens and notice-me signs at airports — and where the only place to escape all this digital technology shouting ‘over here’ is in the quiet of the first-class lounge. His point is that the ability to concentrate has become a luxury item, a matter of privilege, a class issue. ...  Continue reading

American coverage of British politics has become noticeably dreadful since 2016, so it’s always worth reading the incomparable Andrew Sullivan. Here the Sussex-born writer is repeating the theme he mentioned in last week’s podcast with Giles Fraser, that Boris Johnson is not remotely like Donald Trump and is, in fact, a liberal:

Two competing visions of the future in this week’s bumper weekend long read double bill. Jonathan Haskel and Stian Westlake in City Journal propose ‘An Agenda for the Intangible Economy’ in which they outline the transformative impact of a new economy focusing not on physical goods but on ‘intangibles’ such as R&D, brands and ideas. In Jacobin, Meagan Day interviews Bernie Sanders campaign surrogate and UCal professor Ramesh Srinavasan, author of several books on big tech and community-driven alternatives.

The ‘intangible economy’, per Haskel and Westlake, comprises new offerings that leverage networks, data and the ‘internet of things’ to thread traditional sectors (such as restaurants) with new and unexpected channels such as ‘dark kitchens’, table-free restaurants where food orders can be placed online and then delivered to your door. ...  Continue reading

The closest I have ever been to religious fundamentalism was at university when I flirted with being a member of the Socialist Workers Party. We would stand on street corners alongside other more obviously religious evangelists. Like them, we would have our core texts from which we drew inspiration. And like them we would insist upon doctrinal purity — which would sometimes tip over into a kind of heresy hunting. Marxism a jealous god, and looks with barely concealed hostility on other creeds and their followers.

Which is why I share the suspicion of the blogger Archbishop Cranmer when he points out that the Labour Manifesto can be read as seeking to downgrade the place that Christianity has in our education system. At present, the law states that: ...  Continue reading

The Swedish Moderate party have dropped their ban on working with the far-right Swedish Democrats, and have already met them to discuss co-operation on immigration, law and order and energy policy.

Finally! The situation in Sweden recently, where a successful political party that represents more than 20% of voters’ views has been frozen out of discussions with other parties because their views were deemed deplorable, has been obviously counter-productive. It is literally a core part of every populist’s appeal that the ‘establishment’ is conspiring to keep them outside the room — in this case it was true. ...  Continue reading

I used to enjoy general elections but, I suppose like Bond films, they’re those big national events that just get less inspiring the older you get. The day after the surprise 2015 result was the funniest in social media history; I actually had a side I wanted to win and we did, luckily avoiding those years of chaos under Ed Miliband.

Now, I think like a lot of people, I just feel there are different variations of terrible; the Conservative slogan, “Get Brexit Done”, works a couple of times because that’s how a lot of people reluctantly feel, but after a while it just inspires a sense of gloom, because it won’t just be done. It’ll still drag on. Corbyn winning would be genuinely catastrophic and even the fact that half of the people in my city will vote for the man fills with me with despair. ...  Continue reading

That’s the fascinating question that Tyler Cowen asks in a brilliant piece for Bloomberg. And this is his answer:

“I… nominate a 30-year-old Cebu mother as the epicenter of human existence.”

Cebu City is a community of about a million people in the central Philippines. It’s not a familiar name in the West, but then the West is highly atypical of humanity.

Much more representative are places like Cebu — one of hundreds of rapidly growing cities in the increasingly urbanised developing world:

The city is getting richer thanks to new industries like business outsourcing — helped by the fact that English is widely spoken. ...  Continue reading