Blog posts

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. ...

The subject of agricultural subsidies is one of the key topics in discussion of international trade justice. While rich countries have, through the WTO, insisted that poor countries remove trade barriers such as tariffs on agricultural products and subsidies to their farmers, the European Union and the USA heavily subsidise their farmers. In the UK, a variety of campaign groups have worked hard to make their calls for reform of the European Common Agricultural Policy (CAP) heard. We are assured that the discussion of reform is now very much on the table. ...

The BBC recently picked up on the fair trade theme with this article (thanks to SupraDeluxe for the heads up) picking up the responses to Fair Trade of Alex Singleton (Adam Smith Institute) and Paul Ettinger (commercial director of Caffe Nero). In many ways their comments are reminiscent of many opponents of the fair trade movement, with nods of the head to the apparent ideals of free markets, but the thing that really struck me was a major discrepancy between their two comments. While Singleton comments that: ...

When people have asked me what I’ll most miss–friend and family aside–when I move to the USA later this year, my usual response has been the news media. One of the things I most notice is the absence of local shops carrying newspapers with an international scope. Thankfully, it seems that Schulers Books and Music pick up The Observer each Sunday, so between that weekly pilgrimage and plenty of time online, I should just about be covered. ...

Some may have noticed that I am tinkering with the links in the right-hand bar. In any sensible web browser, clicking on one of the category names will open a list (these lists will be further developed shortly). In various versions of Internet Explorer, however, there are one or two display hitches. Internet Explorer has many bugs and Microsoft don’t plan to bring out an updated version for quite some time. While I seek ways round IE’s shortcomings, I recommend wherever possible switching to a superior, regularly developed web browser such as Mozilla Firefox. ...

It was good to see last Sunday’s Observer praising Rowan Williams for his appreciation of Philip Pullman’s excellent His Dark Materials trilogy. The lecture in which the endorsement was made is also well worth some time. It seems that some people have been doing projections based on recent trends which suggest that Islam will surpass Christianity as the most practiced religion in the UK within the next twenty years. The reasons for this are many, and certainly too complex for a simple blog entry. Somehow I doubt it’s to do with their Alpha Courses. ...

For those of us who take note of the Iranian New Year, today is the first day of 1383. We’ve noted Noruz (’new day’, the name for New Year) throughout my life, celebrating with my mother’s family the key celebration in the calendar of her homeland. It’s something I’ve always enjoyed having, partly, I’ll admit, for the presents and sweets we receive from our parents, but also as a connection to a culture which isn’t very well known amongst those around me. ...

Moving money between bank accounts should be easy. Even internationally, it should be easy. The last estimate I heard (and this was a couple of years ago) was that two trillion dollars are exchanged on the international currency markets each and every day. So I don’t quite understand why it should have taken over a month for money to not transfer between my accounts at HSBC and Fifth Third Bank. Well, maybe I do understand to some degree. Technically it’s because the transfer request between HSBC and Fifth Third didn’t come with a Swift Code. The banks seem to differ on who’s to blame for the mix-up. ...