Category Archives: What interests us

Prince Charles must go public with tax dealings

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Prem Sikka, “Prince Charles must go public with tax dealings,” The Conversation, 15 July 2013

The UK House of Commons Public Accounts Committee is examining some of the financial affairs of Prince Charles, heir to the British throne. The Committee should be concerned that the Duchy of Cornwall, Prince’s business arm, is exempt from corporation and capital gains tax. This means that the Duchy does not make any financial contribution towards the social infrastructure used by it. Its tax exemptions also give it unfair advantage over its rivals.
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The EU trade and Investment Agenda: quashing the aspirations of the Arab Spring?

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Roeline Knottnerus, “The EU trade and Investment Agenda“, Transnational Institute, 26 March 2013

The EU’s launch of negotiations for Deep and Comprehensive Free Trade Agreements (DCFTAs) with four Arab countries in transition – Egypt, Jordan, Morocco and Tunisia – looks set to entrench an economic model that was one of the root causes of the Arab Spring.
Download The EU trade and Investment Agenda: quashing the aspirations of the Arab Spring? (PDF: 221.58 KB)
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Military spending and the EU crisis

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Frank Slijper, “Guns, Debt and Corruption“, Transnational Institute, 14 April 2013

High levels of military spending played a key role in the unfolding economic crisis in Europe and continues to undermine efforts to resolve it.

Download Guns, Debt and Corruption: Full report (pdf, 525KB)
Download Guns, Debt and Corruption: Executive Summary (pdf, 77KB)
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UK co-op membership reaches record high

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Aimee Meade, “UK co-op membership reaches record high“, Guardian, 24 June 2013

A record number of entrepreneurs, employers and communities in the UK have opted for the co-operative business model, according to a new report by Co-operatives UK.

The report Homegrown: The Co-operative Economy 2013 which was published today by Co-operatives UK, outlined how local shops, owned and run by members of communities across the UK had a combined turnover of £49m in 2012 with over 50,000 members.
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The real cost of getting rid of Trident from Scotland: £150m

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“The real cost of getting rid of Trident from Scotland: £150m“, HeraldScotland, 14 July 2013

Westminster warnings that the bill for ridding an independent Scotland of Trident would run into billions have been undermined by revelations that the UK Government previously put the cost at £150 million.
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Transcript of Jimmy Carter’s Speech at Lafayette College

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Jimmy Carter, inaugural Robert and Margaret Pastor Lecture in International Affairs, Lafayette College, April 22

What can we do to improve our own lives? Let me go down the list. Let’s talk about peace. That’s one of the major attributes that a human being would have in his life. I would say that the major religions would also have these same kind of things in mind. It doesn’t matter whether you’re a Christian or Jew or a Muslim or Hindu or Buddhist. The major religions advocate peace. They also advocate taking care of the environment. They also advocate helping people who are in need.
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The Korean War: Forgotten, Unknown and Unfinished

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H Patricia Hynes, “The Korean War: Forgotten, Unknown and Unfinished“, Truthout, 12 July 2013

On Veterans Day 2011, Korean War veteran Jack Tolbert spoke to a gathering at a Northern California cemetery. After relating his memories of serving in the war, among them covering a hand grenade with his lower body to save soldiers under his command, he remarked, “I’ve never understood why they insisted on calling it the Korean Conflict. After seeing the bodies I’ve seen, it was more like a war than anything else I’ve ever seen.”…

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U.S. Wastes Millions On Base In Afghanistan It Will Never Use

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Hayes Brown, “U.S. Wastes Millions On Base In Afghanistan It Will Never Use“, ThinkProgress, Jul 10 2013

The United States military spent millions of dollars on a shining new command center in the Helmand province of Afghanistan — a center that will never be used and is now likely to be completely demolished.
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Press Release: WHO/UNEP strongly endorse need to regulate as endocrine disrupting chemicals (EDCs) identified as ‘global threat’

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Press Release, Immediate release, Alliance for Cancer Prevention, 20/2/13

WHO/UNEP strongly endorse need to regulate as endocrine disrupting chemicals (EDCs) identified as ‘global threat’.

edc_coverA new report from the World Health Organisation (WHO) and United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) comprehensively reviews the state of the science on endocrine disrupting chemicals (EDCs).  It outlines the very serious and immediate threat to human health and wildlife from EDCs and signals the urgent need for effective regulation and testing of these chemicals.

The report estimates that as much as 24% of human diseases and disorders are due at least in part to environmental factors which include chemical exposures. “Many endocrine diseases and disorders are on the rise and the speed at which they are increasing rules out genetic factors as the sole plausible explanation”.
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What We Can Learn from America’s First Tea Party About Countering Corporate Power

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Thom Hartmann, “What We Can Learn From America’s First Tea Party About Countering Corporate Power“, Yes! Magazine, July 04 2013

Before there was Citizens United, a modern Tea Party movement, or national momentum to ban corporate personhood, Thom Hartmann shows that resistance to corporate power is just as patriotic as Boston’s original Tea Party.

On a cold November day, activists gathered in a coastal town. The corporation had gone too far, and the two thousand people who’d jammed into the meeting hall were torn as to what to do about it. Unemployment was exploding and the economic crisis was deepening; corporate crime, governmental corruption spawned by corporate cash, and an ethos of greed were blamed. “Why do we wait?” demanded one at the meeting, a fisherman named George Hewes. “The more we delay, the more strength is acquired” by the company and its puppets in the government. “Now is the time to prove our courage,” he said. Soon, the moment came when the crowd decided for direct action and rushed into the streets.

That is how I tell the story of the Boston Tea Party, now that I have read a first-person account of it. Continue reading →

The British nuclear stockpile, 1953–2013

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Robert S. Norris and Hans M. Kristensen, “The British nuclear stockpile, 1953–2013“, Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists, July/August 2013, 69 (4)

Recent research has revealed new facts about the British nuclear arsenal over a 25-year period starting in 1953. This accounting and the authors’ own research support an estimate that the British produced about 1,250 nuclear warheads between 1953 and 2013. From a peak of about 500 warheads in the period between 1974 and 1981, the UK arsenal has now been reduced to some 225 weapons.

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Europe’s guns, debt and corruption

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Frank Slijper, “Europe’s guns, debt and corruption“, Open Democracy, 27 April 2013

As social infrastructure is being slashed throughout most of Europe, spending on weapon systems has hardly been reduced. Perversely, military lobbyists warn of ‘disaster’ if any further cuts are made to military spending. But the real disaster has emerged from years of high military spending and corrupt arms deals. This second of two essays on military spending and the EU crisis, explores the role of the European arms trade, corruption and the role of arms exporting countries in fuelling a debt crisis, and why these ‘odious’ debts need to be written off.
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Austerity in Europe? Tighten the military belt

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Frank Slijper, “Austerity in Europe? Tighten the military belt“, Open Democracy, 6 May 2013

Five years into the economic crisis in Europe and the elephant in the room is the role of military spending in causing and perpetuating the economic crisis. As social infrastructure is slashed, spending on weapon systems has hardly been reduced. Part one of two essays on military spending and the EU crisis.
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Solving malnutrition through business and science?

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Graham Harrison, “Solving malnutrition through business and science?“, Progressive Development Forum, 8 July 2013

There is in this hunger agenda a salient reshaping of how hunger is perceived and also how it is embedded into a broader model of political economy. The meeting fed into a broader process of elite institutionalisation of the ‘hunger problem’. In essence, the schema outlined above depoliticises hunger and positions international capital as the central agency in the solution to hunger. This, to say the least, requires some critical reflection.
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“It is an insult to claim that poverty is caused by people choosing unemployment” – the Archbishop of York

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“Poverty Is Not About Scroungers Versus Strivers, Church Of England Bishops Say“, The Huffington Post UK, 08/07/2013

Presenting poverty and unemployment as a question of “scroungers versus strivers” is both inaccurate and an insult, Church of England bishops have said.

The Archbishop of York, Dr John Sentamu, called for the Church to resist “rhetoric” that accuses people of choosing a life of idle dependence on the welfare state.

“It is an insult to claim that poverty in this country is caused by people choosing unemployment,” he told members of the General Synod.
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With two wars ending, the “defense” industry sets its sights on its next chance to hit pay dirt: The U.S. border

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Joshua Holland, “An ‘ungodly stupid’ get-rich scheme: The real border security story“, Salon, Jul 6 2013

Last week, John McCain gleefully announced that the Senate immigration bill would result in the “most militarized border since the fall of the Berlin Wall.” Indeed, an amendment authored by Sens. Bob Corker, R-Tenn., and John Hoeven, R-N.D., authorizes a massive increase in border security dollars — including $30 billion for hiring and training 19,000 new border patrol officers over the next 10 years, and over $13 billion for a “comprehensive Southern border strategy” (including 700 miles of high-tech fencing).

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