Low on inspiration at the moment nothing particularly meaty to post on so a few random bits and pieces for you and thoughts on recent stories…
Thatcher’s State Funeral – a terrible idea. I can only assume Downing Street’s apparent approval is a cack-handed, clumsy attempt to sow Tory division or raise the hackles of their own supporters sufficiently to flush out lots of anti-Maggie pieces (if so it’s worked) and hope there’s a negative knock on for Cameron. Why a bad idea? Because as a rule PMs don’t get state funerals – simple as that. The exception in Churchill’s case doesn’t need explaining. So opposition to the idea doesn’t need articulated at any length and isn’t political – it’s those advancing the idea that need to explain why we break with tradition and the motive there, I suspect, is purely political.
Nudge, Nudge, Wink, Wink… - ‘Must-read’ book of the moment apparently (i.e. get a copy, nick a few buzz words and drop them into conversation & speeches wherever possible) is ‘Nudge’ by Richard Thaler and Cass Sunstein. Thaler is being courted by both parties, Osborne wrote on the topic on Monday and Danny Finkelstein today ponders if behavioural economics will come to be as central to political thinking as basic economics and market philosophy now is. I have no great insight here but I do get suspicious when politicians from all parties start to coalesce around some new idea, book or pamphlet (remember a similar fuss around ‘The State We’re In’ by Will Hutton?) in the hope that it has all the answers. Often what’s really going on here is someone has simply found a neat new way to phrase an already common idea or better frame the debate rather than advancing any particularly detailed policy positions. The central idea in ‘Nudge’ is that human beings aren’t entirely rational and often act according to peer pressure and social norms rather than cold calculation of self-interest. Not having read it I don’t want to dismiss Thaler & Sunstein’s book out of hand but I can’t pretend that central revelation floored me.
Anyway, there’s a website devoted to the Nudge phenomenon as well as a blog….
Thatcher’s State Funeral – a terrible idea. I can only assume Downing Street’s apparent approval is a cack-handed, clumsy attempt to sow Tory division or raise the hackles of their own supporters sufficiently to flush out lots of anti-Maggie pieces (if so it’s worked) and hope there’s a negative knock on for Cameron. Why a bad idea? Because as a rule PMs don’t get state funerals – simple as that. The exception in Churchill’s case doesn’t need explaining. So opposition to the idea doesn’t need articulated at any length and isn’t political – it’s those advancing the idea that need to explain why we break with tradition and the motive there, I suspect, is purely political.
Nudge, Nudge, Wink, Wink… - ‘Must-read’ book of the moment apparently (i.e. get a copy, nick a few buzz words and drop them into conversation & speeches wherever possible) is ‘Nudge’ by Richard Thaler and Cass Sunstein. Thaler is being courted by both parties, Osborne wrote on the topic on Monday and Danny Finkelstein today ponders if behavioural economics will come to be as central to political thinking as basic economics and market philosophy now is. I have no great insight here but I do get suspicious when politicians from all parties start to coalesce around some new idea, book or pamphlet (remember a similar fuss around ‘The State We’re In’ by Will Hutton?) in the hope that it has all the answers. Often what’s really going on here is someone has simply found a neat new way to phrase an already common idea or better frame the debate rather than advancing any particularly detailed policy positions. The central idea in ‘Nudge’ is that human beings aren’t entirely rational and often act according to peer pressure and social norms rather than cold calculation of self-interest. Not having read it I don’t want to dismiss Thaler & Sunstein’s book out of hand but I can’t pretend that central revelation floored me.
Anyway, there’s a website devoted to the Nudge phenomenon as well as a blog….
Finally a few worthy articles you might want to read:
- Peter Beinart, Senior Fellow @ CFR, writes a great Op-ed for Time magazine on US patriotism and how it manifests itself differently on the left and right.
“American patriotism wears two faces: a patriotism of affirmation, which appeals more to conservatives, and a patriotism of dissent, particularly cherished by liberals. Both brands are precious, and both are dangerous”
- An interesting piece from the LA Times on bloggers, our interests and our reading habits. (with a US focus obviously)
- And a good piece from the Guardian Arts section on how blogs are impacting traditional critics in the world of theatre, food and the arts (hat-tip to Skipper).
2 Comments:
Perhaps they can get Elton John to do "Goodbye England`s saviour , though I never knew you at all you had the courage to smash the Unions and the argies too...well it seems to me ..."
Looking through the tomes at Gaviano Towers, I see that I have A Brief History Of Time by the boy Hawking, No Logo by Naomi Klein and Captive State by George Monboit so I shan't by buying Nudge. Well, not unless all my mates buy it first and tell me to get it. Or unless there's floof.
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