Islingword Street

Runciman on Europe as superstate

David Runciman's article on the political philosophy of the European Union is fantastic (though a little whiskery - 2001). Link: LRB - David Runciman: Invented Communities.

Long live the dictatorship of the commentariat!

Thank GOD for the journalistic profession. I for one couldn't have lived a moment longer without knowing that Tony Blair was once sent a reminder about an unpaid bill. And as for his purchase of a dishwasher - why in heaven's name has it taken till now for us to know the brand? Now our war dead can rest in peace.

Step aside, founding fathers! No greater contribution to democracy and the rule of law has ever been made.

Credulous Bayesians

I posted this - a paper on extremism and online debate, among other things - over at the Demsoc blog.

Vote for genitals!

The NHS is inviting people to vote on whether the interactive bodymaps on the NHS website should have accurately represented genitals or not. Admirably democratic of them, I think.

Murdoch to public: Obey

According to evidence before a House of Lords committee, reported by the BBC, Rupert Murdoch has admitted telling his red-tops what to write (and making his views clear to the board of the Times, as well). So if you want distortions and half-truths designed to warp your views to fit the personal political agenda of a nationality-hopping billionaire, you should buy the Sun, the paper that sticks up for Australian American British values.

Adam Curtis on the Rise and Fall of the TV Journalist

From Screenwipe, on Youtube here. Adam Curtis is the man behind the ravishing but occasionally dodgy doc, the Power of Nightmares.

Rotten timber

The Daily Mail:.

Democracy knows you as the poisoner of the streams of human intercourse, the fomenter of war, the preacher of hate, the unscrupulous enemy of a peaceful human society

Gore blimey

Congratulations to Al Gore (and the IPCC) for winning the Nobel Peace Prize. I see that the BBC 'most recommended comments' page on the topic is, as always, full of right wing nuts.

I wonder whether the right-wing noise machine that is the BBC Have Your Say feature is a bad sign for (a) the BBC's ability to get user interaction right, (b) the future of politics or (c) the future of the human race. Or (d) all of the above, I suppose.

Politics Online Conference 2007

The Institute for Politics Democracy and the Internet ran a conference called Politics Online at the start of the month: its highlights are archived here.

Civic republicanism and active citizenship

A great article by Bernard Crick in On Line Opinion (an Australian journal).