Latest thinking

An oasis of politics in a sea of turmoil

Blog

18 May 2010

Matthew Taylor

I have been a more than usually useless blogger recently. I have been completely sidetracked by my lecture on 21st century enlightenment, which is quite literally causing me sleepless nights as I veer from euphoric mania to teeth grinding despair. The plan now is to update the wiki with a full first draft by the end of next Monday. Someone innocently asked me the other day why exactly I perform an annual lecture. Being entirely unable to answer I had to go and sit in a darkened room for several hours to recover.

The Evolution of Comedy

Video

18 May 2010

With Sam Bain, Jesse Armstrong, Simon Nye and Caryn Mandabach.

What rights and responsibilities could you get behind?

Blog

13 May 2010

The hard reality of the spending cuts our new government will make in the next few years will force us to re-think what public services are and should be. The looming "age of austerity" will also demand that we ask more searching questions about the type of society we want to live in and the type of citizens we need to be. It certainly has me.

The Carbon Footprint of Everything

Video

13 May 2010

Mike Berners-Lee, leading expert in greenhouse gas footprinting

General Election 2010

Video

13 May 2010

With Anthony Painter, Mark Pack, Stella Creasey, Mark Hanson, Craig Elder, Harry Cole and James Crabtree

The Plundered Planet

Video

12 May 2010

Paul Collier, director, the Centre for the Study of African Economies, Oxford University

The end of an era

Blog

12 May 2010

Matthew Taylor

It is a new era. As regular readers will know, I have been told to keep political commentary to a minimum on this site but as it feels like a turning point for me too maybe I can be excused one more time.

Facing up to Climate Change

Video

12 May 2010

Clive Hamilton, professor of public ethics, Australian National University

Dangerous Rhetoric

Comment

10 May 2010

In Plato’s time they would regularly hold competitions between a skilled rhetorician and an experienced doctor to see who could convince a crowd who was the better doctor. Apparently the rhetorician would always win and if we consider the implications of that for the climate change debate it raises some serious concerns.