OurKingdom

“Only war makes it possible to mobilize all of today’s technical resources while maintaining the property system.”

- Walter Benjamin, 1936

Games with shadows: living in Thatcher’s Scotland

Gerry Hassan 9 April 2013

We live in Thatcher’s Britain - that statement is obvious, yet contentious and deeply divisive. And this is all the more true north of the border.

The Lady is not Returning: Novara radio on Thatcher

Aaron Peters and James Butler 9 April 2013

The Novara radio show marks the death of Margaret Thatcher with nuanced, wide-ranging, radical analysis of the politician and her legacy.

What Thatcher did for Wales

John Osmond 9 April 2013

Which politician did most to secure devolution for Wales? Margaret Thatcher. The miners’ strike was the beginning of an era that proved time and again Welsh difference from Britain and alienation from the English.

Doctors have the opportunity to act now - they must take it

David Wrigley 9 April 2013

Through the Royal Colleges doctors have the means to stop the disastrous privatisation regulations about to go through parliament if they utilise the tools at their disposal. We are not powerless. Here is one clear and simple thing we can do.

The death of a class warrior: Margaret Thatcher (1925-2013)

Tom Mills 9 April 2013

Thatcher did not seek to win over 'hearts and minds'. Rather she attacked the social bases of collective thought and action, making building any alternative unimaginable. Throughout the long span of her life, she was a blue class warrior, through and through.

Thatcher was not the answer but a new direction was needed

Niki Seth-Smith 8 April 2013

Before advocating a return to a pre-Thatcher era of socialism and solidarity, remember the suffocating Labour years preceding her ascension. This House, playing at The National, takes us back to the last hurrah of a failing post-war consensus.

Bank-money and the betrayal of democracy

Ivo Mosley 8 April 2013

In this speech given at the PSA conference in Cardiff, the author examines the history and theory of bank money - credit - from a democratic perspective. How did this strange fraud come to be established under law?

Thatcher and the words no one mentions: North Sea Oil

Anthony Barnett 8 April 2013

Britain will never recover from being saved by Margaret Thatcher.

The debate over Scotland’s future: do women care?

Ailsa McKay 8 April 2013

What does the gender gap in attitudes towards independence tell us about Scottish women, their political attitudes and changing roles in society? This piece looks back to Gerry Hassan's article 'Mind the Gap' and gives a very different verdict.

openDemocracy writer longlisted for Orwell Prize

OurKingdom 8 April 2013

Clare Sambrook, one of OurKingdom’s co-editors, is among 14 nominees for the UK’s leading prize for political journalism.

Leeds Children's Heart Surgery: twisted statistics, conflicts of interest and hidden agendas

Steve Walker 8 April 2013

Has the government, once again, ignored due process and legal rulings in the decision to close down a children's unit at Leeds General Infirmary?

Socialism in one country... and English football's Premier League

Julian Sayarer 7 April 2013

The beautiful game is rotting because of its place in the global economy: meaningful participation and attachment is being commodified, a process which brings great whooshes of cash into football. Can the game be fixed for the better?

Britain's Brezhnev-style capitalism

Will Davies 6 April 2013

Wander into post-Olympics East London, lift your gaze, and what do you see? The awful warning of late-Soviet homogenisation.

Scotland, citizenship and choice: the deep constitution

James Mitchell 5 April 2013

How would a Yes or No vote in the referendum affect the everyday lives of Scots? The question of the Scottish constitution goes far beyond the domain of institutional relations. Crucial to this is the shape and nature of the welfare state envisioned. This is the second piece in the debate series 'Restating Scotland'.

Anarchists and republicans: bedfellows?

Bruno Leipold 5 April 2013

Are republicans simply underdeveloped anarchists? An exploration of the relationship between two political theories and their conceptions of freedom and domination.

Restating Scotland

Land, apples, and political engagement in Scotland
Max J Muir

Privatised NHS call centres are causing an A&E crisis
Suresh Chauhan

A republican call for a basic income
Daniel Raventos and Julie Wark

Thatcher's legacy

Outsourcer Nick Buckles retires at 52, a multimillionaire
Clare Sambrook

Not everyone can be a world citizen
Bridget Byrne

"Currency war" rhetoric obscures the real need for realignment
John Mills

Desegregating Roma and Croat schoolchildren: what has been done?
Tom Bass

openDemocracy Ltd, The Print House, 18 Ashwin Street, London, E8 3DL. Tel: +44 (0) 207 193 0676

openDemocracy

Welcome to openDemocracy! We are a digital commons, publishing high quality news analysis, debates and blogs about the world and the way we govern ourselves. More...

Italian triple whammy

Best of the rest:

Arab Awakening | Can Europe Make it? | Drug and Criminal Justice Policy Forum | OurBeeb

OurKingdom

About us
OurKingdom works to investigate and illuminate the crisis of democracy in Britain and analyse how its failings can be redressed.

We encourage original debate untrammelled by party political loyalties.

We ask how we as citizens can secure liberty, human rights, self-government and real democracy. ...more on OurKingdom

Pick of the debates: Democratic Wealth: building a citizens' economy, edited by Stuart White, uses republican theory to explore ideas around how to democratise the economy. Co-hosted with Politics in Spires, a blog sponsored by the universities of Oxford and Cambridge.

oD Russia

50.50

Recent articles on 50.50

50.50 Dialogues

About 50.50
50.50 is openDemocracy's section dedicated to exploring issues of gender equality and social justice at the global level.

We are committed to promoting human rights and inclusive democracy through dialogue and debate. But a global debate without the female half of humanity is neither global nor democratic. With this in mind, 50.50 publishes women's analysis, insight and views on current affairs.

Can Europe Make It?

Spread the word

Spread the word is a brand new section of openDemocracy's not-for-profit web platform.

This space is for other not-for-profit organisations of all kinds to publicise your activities and spread the exchange of ideas.

You will be able to link to all your publications, and events anywhere in the world. You will have your own openDemocracy page and all new announcements will be ticker-taped to our front page.

This organisation subscription is available for a modest annual fee, dependent on the size of your organisation.

Please contact Jonathan Bowles at supporters@opendemocracy.net if you are interested in joining.

If you're interested in developing editorial projects on openDemocracy, please see our Editorial partnerships page

We are grateful to the following organisations for their support in developing this initiative:

Norwegian Peacebuilding Resource Centre

Rockefeller Brothers Fund

openSecurity

openEconomy

Arab Awakening

In the months following the start of the Arab Revolutions, articles and analysis poured into openDemocracy from contributors across the Middle East and Europe. Gradually, the impact of Tahrir Square began to extend well beyond the Middle East as democratic inspiration travelled from east to west. Arab Awakening tries to capture that inspiration and use it to help us read a rapidly changing world.

"As students of politics is it is vital to study the power of imagination." -Professor Charles Tripp, SOAS

Debates

Columnists | This week's window on the Middle East

OurNHS

AddThis

Games with shadows: living in Thatcher’s Scotland

The Lady is not Returning: Novara radio on Thatcher

What Thatcher did for Wales

Doctors have the opportunity to act now - they must take it

The death of a class warrior: Margaret Thatcher (1925-2013)

Thatcher was not the answer but a new direction was needed

Bank-money and the betrayal of democracy

Thatcher and the words no one mentions: North Sea Oil

The debate over Scotland’s future: do women care?

openDemocracy writer longlisted for Orwell Prize

Leeds Children's Heart Surgery: twisted statistics, conflicts of interest and hidden agendas

Socialism in one country... and English football's Premier League

Britain's Brezhnev-style capitalism

Scotland, citizenship and choice: the deep constitution

Anarchists and republicans: bedfellows?

Restating Scotland

OurNHS

Democratic Wealth

Thatcher's legacy

G4S: securing whose world?

Re-birth of the nation?

Devalue or Else!

Can Europe Make It?

OurKingdom comments

OurKingdom is reading

Advertising notice

openDemocracy

OurKingdom

oD Russia

50.50

Can Europe Make It?

Spread the word

openSecurity

openEconomy

Arab Awakening

OurNHS