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Recent Posts
accountability Archive
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Any institution needs its critics
Posted on 22/07/2013 | No CommentsIn the furore about reported failings in the National Health Service recently, Daniel Hannan MEP remarked that: Any organisation that is treated as being beyond reproach is bound in time to become flabby, self-serving and producer-centred. It happened to the mega-charities. It happened to the […] -
How can national parliaments exert influence in the EU?
Posted on 19/07/2013 | No CommentsLabour eurosceptic MP Gisela Stuart convened an interesting debate in Westminster Hall on 16 July about the role of national parliaments in the EU legislative system. Her speech focused on ways in which procedures in Westminster and Whitehall could be improved, and not doubt there […] -
Foreign policy in the UK courts (14 May 2012)
Posted on 25/04/2012 | No CommentsDate: Monday 14th May Time: 6.30-8pm Venue: Wolfson Theatre Speaker: Jonathan Lord Sumption Chair: Professor Martin Loughlin Jonathan Lord Sumption was sworn in as a Justice of the Supreme Court in January 2012. Sumption is known for his appearance as a barrister in the Hutton […] -
The next head of the World Bank
Posted on 05/03/2012 | No CommentsThe World Bank needs a new manager. Robert Zoellick is leaving, so the search is on for a replacement. Tradition has it that the role is always filled by an American (the Europeans have the IMF) but, as a surf of this website will reveal, […] -
The lady in the lake
Posted on 03/02/2012 | No CommentsTaking a break from thinking about the future of the eurozone or the prospects for a UN Parliamentary Assembly, I took a trip to 1940s California in the company of Philip Marlowe, Raymond Chandler’s iconic, hardbitten private detective. But amidst the glitz of Hollywood and […] -
The case for global democracy
Posted on 12/12/2011 | No CommentsBased on a talk by Richard Laming at the OccupyLSX camp at St Paul’s Cathedral, 11 December 2011 Before talking about the issue of global democracy, I ought to say a few words about Federal Union and its interest in this issue. Federal Union was founded […] -
No globalisation without representation
Posted on 22/11/2011 | No CommentsThat the protestors outside St Paul’s cathedral are critical of global capitalism should not be surprise. Doesn’t everybody object to the way in which what was effectively gambling in unregulated markets nearly brought down the financial system and has ground economic growth to a halt? […] -
The rights of citizens, the rights of nations
Posted on 02/06/2011 | No CommentsBarack Obama was widely praised for the declaration in his speech at Westminster Hall on 25 May that “we believe not simply in the rights of nations, we believe in the rights of citizens.” It sounds great, but is it really true? Here’s a test. […] -
Too many vaccines
Posted on 11/04/2010 | No CommentsIt has become apparent that the British government ordered many more shots of swine flu vaccine last winter than turned out to be needed. (The Guardian reports the story here.) The excess cost is not quoted but must run into tens of millions of pounds. […] -
Tuna off the menu and onto the agenda
Posted on 18/11/2009 | No CommentsEnvironmentalists are angry about the decision by the International Commission for the Conservation of Atlantic Tunas (ICCAT) at the weekend to reduce the allowable catch next year from 22,000 to 13,500 tonnes but not to abolish it altogether. Stocks of tuna are at dangerously low […]