Current Affairs

The Washington Post has an interesting article on the legal philosophy of aspiring Chief Justice Roberts. Roberts, it says, is devoted to legal process – not legislating from the bench, in other words. Now, I say this as a European liberal in a Parliamentary system, but that attitude does have a

This story gave me a huge laugh – George W Bush, the President of the US, has taken it on himself to lead the inquiry into what went wrong with the handling of Katrina. Quick summary of the results, courtesy of my friend Nostradamus: * (Democrat party) officials in NO and Louisiana

Duncan O’Leary over at Demos Greenhouse looks on the bright side for the Tory party. The news stories may have been division, division and more division (oh, and dumping Europe) over the last six months, but at least, he says, the Tories have had a proper debate about the

Socialist and presidential outsider Jack Lang has published a book (Changer), with his proposals for (among other things) political and constitutional reform in France, including 4 year terms for public office, renewable once, and the end of the cumul – the practice of multiple office-holding. Le Figaro discusses.

And so, like a fairly distant relative who’s been ill for a long time, the European constitution project is dead. Has to go down as one of Europe’s many wasted opportunities, and it won’t be the last. Link via Fistful of Euros.

The Enlightenment has ended in America. It was nice while it lasted. Why? Take a look at the depressing and astonishing results from a survey on creationism, reported in the New York Times today. In brief, 64% of Americans are open to the idea of teaching creationist pseudoscience alongside established

Norman Birnbaum remembers Solidarity on the 25th anniversary of its founding.

Ken Clarke has announced that he’s going to stand for the Tory leadership. I lost a lot of respect for him a few days back when he pandered to the sceps by saying that Britain won’t join the euro for at least ten years. It seems to be

Paul Skidmore at the Demos Greenhouse riffs nicely on the Daily Mail’s latest rant topic, the 2003 Licensing Act. Of course, the Daily Mail is onto a winner here. Lots of fuming sixty-somethings, the Youth of Today, What Was Wrong With The Old Laws. Sigh. And, of course, it’

Metafilter discusses the prospect of American gas (petrol) prices reaching European levels.