Blog posts

This morning saw the launch of the new look front page for the Greenbelt website. Simon has done a great job putting together our new splash page and bringing it in line with the publicity. We’re hoping it’ll make the site a little more straightforward for newcomers to the festival, while still giving old hands access to the information they need. Be sure to refresh the splash page a few times to see a variety of images from the festival. ...

A much linked blog of late has been Marginal Revolution, a site set up by two economists, containing a range of social commentary. It was through that blog that I discovered news of a UNESCO meeting last week on the topic of ‘cultural diversity’. From Marginal Revolution: “Several countries, most notably France, would like UNESCO to have the power to overturn the free trade commitments made through the WTO and the EU for that matter.” ...

In July last year, Tariq Ali wrote an excellent article about Iran for The Nation. He deftly covered the political history of the country through the 20th century and from that argued that Iran is already on a road to democracy and shouldn’t be interfered with. In the article, Ali used the acclaimed Iranian film industry amongst his evidence. That film industry has been one which I’ve been trying to follow for some time, even to the extent of gradually making my way through The New Iranian Cinema, an excellent collection of essays on the social and political currents present in the neo-realist cinema which has emerged from Iran in recent years. ...

With HEFCE (Higher Education Funding Council for England) having placed caps on undergraduate home (ie. not international) student numbers for many universities, a lot are looking around for new places to expand. Two areas are providing room for that expansion: foundation degrees, which are two-year courses developed in partnership with industry, awarded by universities but delivered in further education colleges; and international partnerships. Both are examples of what’s known as ‘collaborative provision’, which has become a particular emphasis of mine over the past few months. ...

Having mentioned the principle of ‘comparative advantage’ recently, I’ve been looking for a good explanation of it on the web. It’s taken a little while, but this piece about David Ricardo’s theory seems to set it out relatively well. What is missing is—as usual with explanations of this theory—any discussion of the costs of production and transport beyond the economic. For me, the failure to put economics in a social-environmental context is what lets down most such arguments. ...

A short while ago, I decided to email clothing supplier Land’s End to ask them about the ethical status of some of their products. Noting that their products were ‘imported’, i enquired as to where the products were sourced from and the conditions in the factories where they were produced. Somewhat misinterpreting my question, but responding very promptly they commented: We’ve heard similar comments from many of our customer [sic]. As much as we would like to offer USA made clothing items we are simply unable to locate many manufacturers that are in the USA. We work with many manufacturing companies that are USA owned companies but their manufacturing facilities are over seas. We inspect each manufacturing facility to be sure they are good work environments as well as that the workers are paid fair wages before we agree to use these companies to produce our products. ...

For some time now I’ve found Philip Yancey an interesting figure and to some degree an enigma. It’s no small feat to simultaneously be one of the biggest selling authors in the subset of the publishing industry which calls itself ‘christian’, and managing to say things which challenges the preconceptions of much of his constituency. Thus it was that I found myself reading an article in CCM magazine (a publication I rarely open) which recorded a discussion between Yancey and a singer called Steven Curtis Chapman. Their discussion of U2 is one of the reasons the article was drawn to my attention, and while the content of that discussion will seem rather tame to those of us for whom the apparent questions about U2’s faith arising out of the CCM fraternity have never held much fascination, it is a source of hope that they are getting the coverage they are. ...

I recently discovered the kickAAS blog which is working for the abolition of all agricultural subsidies. Trade issues aren’t all that well represented in the blogosphere and it’s good to see anyone who wants to get in on that act. But as a lengthy comment on this entry argues, a complete abolition of subsidies is not the answer. From a free-market perspective, agricultural subsidies are entirely wrong. By supporting “inefficient” unprofitable farms, governments are allowing them to continue in their current state rather than finding ways of operating which the market will support. ...

A week ago, I blogged about the ‘action short of a strike’ being undertaken by the AUT. Shortly thereafter it was announced that UCEA had, through mediation, made a new pay offer whereby the average AUT member would receive a 12.44% pay increase over two years (double what was previously on the table) and national pay bargaining would be retained. It’s taken a while because the AUT wanted to discuss the new offer with their membership, but today at their conference they agreed to suspend their action, pending a ballot of the membership. It is highly unlikely that the membership will reject this new offer as it is a major step in the right direction. All of us involved in Higher Education in the UK can heave a major sigh of relief. ...

For obvious reasons I’ve been paying closer attention to this year’s US elections than I have to previous ones. That’s not been too hard, given the plethora of information available across hundreds of websites, and since the British media seem to be covering these elections in more detail than they have for a while. Much discussion has gone into the amount of negative campaigning which dogged the democrat primaries and which is now rearing its head in a big way in the main campaign. Negative campaigning very quickly becomes a vicious circle with candidates spending so much time defending from each others’ latest barrage that the lower energy option of replying in kind is all they can manage. Whichever candidate launches the first or loudest attack is allowed to define the agenda until their opponent finds a more severe smear. ...