Blog posts

The blog world has allowed a number of people involved in

Returning from seeing The Passion Of The Christ with Matt and Fraser last Sunday I attempted to shape some words to describe the experience. They’re still hidden away somewhere on my hard drive, but I think I’ll choose to leave them there. I needed some time to temper my take on the film with conversation and to allow the visceral memories to subside somewhat. It wasn’t until two days later that I first put a response on any sort of record when I commented on Hugo Schwyzer’s blog, as he contrasted his reaction to the film with the reviews in the British press. ...

A short while ago, during an exchange of emails, Ralston Bowles happened to mention to me that his room had caught fire at this year’s Folk Alliance festival in San Diego. Yesterday he emailed again, mentioning that the full story can now be found at this site.

Since 1997 it has often seemed that Britain is without a paliamentary opposition to the government. After the devastating blow that New Labour’s 1997 election win dealt to the Conservative Party they have been largely ineffective as an opposition party. The Liberal Democrats have made some sensible comments, but are still not strong enough as a parliamentary force to back up their words. The most effective opposition forces of the past seven years have been New Labour’s own backbench MPs who, in debates over War with Iraq and Top-up Fees, have brought the government perilously close to defeat. ...

Visiting the Houses of Parliament has become a relatively regular part of my life over the past few years, as I’ve found myself lobbying a number of MPs on a variety of issues. Mainly higher education-related. Entering the corridors leading to Central Lobby has become a matter of course, but there’s still a thrill that comes with walking through those historic halls each and every time I enter. It’s a shame the quality of dialogue which takes place within them rarely pays testament to the history and architecture containing it. ...

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. ...