Category Archives: United Kingdom

The Year of Covid: Political religion and the Cultural Wars. Part 2.6. The Utilitarians: the birth of economics as a science.

This is the seventh essay in my series on cultural wars: its subject is utilitarianism as the source of the new discipline of economics. It follows on from the previous article, also on the utilitarians, whose central figures are Jeremy … Continue reading

Posted in Adam Smith, Alred Marshall, Anne Robert Turgot, Auguste Comte, Baron de Montesquieu, Beatrice Webb, Bishop Butler, Charles Darwin, Charles Dickens, Chartism, Claude-Henri de Saint-Simon, Corn Laws, David Hume, David Ricardo, demography, Economy, Edmund Burke, François Quesnay, France, Frédéric Bastiat, Friedrich Engels, Great Famine, Helvétius, James Mill, Jeremy Bentham, John Bright, John Cobden, John Locke, John Stuart Mill, Karl Marx, Marquis de Condorcet, Scotland, Sir Isaac Newton, Sir James Steuart Denham, Social Darwinism, The marginalists, Thomas Malthus, United Kingdom, Voltaire, Walther Bagehot | Leave a comment

The Year of Covid 19: Political Religion and the Culture Wars. Part 2.4. The EU’s legacy: 1789-1914: Science, Nature, Necessity.

This is the fifth essay in the series on my blog dealing with cultural wars. The first four  cover an introduction, which will be rewritten, and will include an account of the crucial and decisive battle during the constitutional convention of … Continue reading

Posted in Atheistic materialism, Catholic Church, Charles Darwin, Christianity, culture wars, De Maistre, Declaration of Rights of Man, Edmund Burke, French Revolution, Millenarianism, Napoleon, Robespierre, Social Darwinism, The Enlightenment, Toleration, Treaty of Westphalia, Uncategorized, United Kingdom, World war | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , | 1 Comment

The year of Covid 19: Political Religion and the Culture Wars. Part 2.3: The EU’s legacy, 1492-1789: Europe enters into the Devil’s Anus.

This is the fourth chapter in the series on cultural wars. The first essay sets the scene in the post-1990 decades; the second takes us back to the Jewish, Greek, Roman and Christian roots of European culture; the third essay … Continue reading

Posted in American Revolution, Christianity, culture wars, English Civil War, Europe, French Revolution, International law, Machiavelli, Martin Luther, Slavery, society of states, The Enlightenment, the EU, The United States, Treaty of Westphalia, Uncategorized, United Kingdom | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , | 1 Comment

The year of Covid-19: political religion and the culture wars.Part 1.

The “great reset” is the title of a book, co-authored by Thierry Malleret and  Klaus Schwab. The book’s subject is the pandemic of 2020. Things, the authors aver, will never return to normal. [1] The coronavirus “ marks a fundamental … Continue reading

Posted in Christianity, culture wars, Europe, European integration, Supranational law, The United States, United Kingdom, World politics, business and economics | 2 Comments

The UK Internal Market Bill: Supranational v. International law

On 6 September, the FT and The Guardian   reported that the UK government planned to draw up new legislation regarding the UK’s internal market. The FT headline asserted that the government’s bill was intended to “bypass the withdrawal agreement’s … Continue reading

Posted in Constitutional law, European integration, France and Germany, International law, Supranational law, Uncategorized, United Kingdom | Tagged | 9 Comments

Brexit and the British Constitution: Part V. Modernisation or Vandalism?

This is the last in the series of articles on Brexit and the Constitution. It is based on four books which have dealt with the subject over the last twenty years: Vernon Bogdanor, Professor of Government at King’s College, London, … Continue reading

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Brexit and the British Constitution: Part IV. The pre-1945 Roots of British Supranationalism.

The photo on the front is of David Lloyd George, Prime Minister of Great Britain from 1916 to 1922. His Liberal-Conservative government fell part in late 1922, and the Liberal Party remained out of power for nearly a century. Now … Continue reading

Posted in Europe, European integration, France and Germany, United Kingdom, World politics, business and economics, World war | Tagged , , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

Brexit and the British Constitution: Part III. Efficiency, Parliamentary Sovereignty, Bureaucracy.

The Three Simplifiers. “What is the origin of this seemingly inexorable tendency to get rid of the old checks and balances, asks Ferdinand Mount, to peel off the ancient gnarled bark and hack away the tangle of intertwining and overhanging … Continue reading

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The Supreme Court’s judgement on Prime Minister Johnson’s decision to prorogue parliament: Part IV. New law or constitutional aberration?

The Supreme Court judgement: new law or constitutional aberration? I will not pretend to my own position: the root of the British uncoded Constitution is the Bill of Rights of 1689, and subsequent court judgments and statutes. This states that … Continue reading

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The Supreme Court’s judgement on Prime Minister Johnson’s decision to prorogue Parliament: Part III. Assessment.

Assessment of the Supreme Court judgement. The portrait is of Sir Edward Coke in June 1614, when he was elected High Steward of the University of Cambridge. Coke was a champion of a particular view of Parliamentary Sovereignty, a view, arguably, … Continue reading

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