Stuart Weir - openDemocracy (Page 2)

Surrender on welfare

The Labour party's capitulation on social security for the young is not an appropriate response to the modern world, but a dangerous step into the past.

By Stuart Weir

/ 22 Jun 2014

Basic Income: transforming lives in rural India

An experiment in paying villagers in some of India’s poorest villages a modest regular cash payment without conditions has transformed their lives. It could provide an effective anti-poverty programme for all India’s poor. But which way will Narendra Modi jump?

By Stuart Weir

/ 20 Jun 2014

Review: 'The Precariat Charter' - building an alternative

Labour and social democratic parties in general are succumbing weakly to the demands of global capital and neo-liberal policies. Stuart Weir hails a bold new initiative, a transformational Magna Carta for our times.

By Stuart Weir

/ 16 May 2014

Book review - The Blunders of our Governments

Modern governments of all stripes screw up too often. A new study of their blunders suggests that ‘strong government’, traditionally the great strength of the governing system, is to blame. Let’s hear it for deliberative democracy.

By Stuart Weir

/ 17 Apr 2014

Tony Benn: a memoir

Stuart Weir was an early Bennite in the 1970s, fell out with his hero over Tony Benn’s campaign against the Labour Party leadership in the 1980s, and fell for him again when he became a popular sage after 2001. Here he explains a complex relationship with Labour’s most inspiring politician.

By Stuart Weir

/ 18 Mar 2014

Small earthquake in Britain - devastates the economy

The 50p tax rate would apparently have minimal impact but also be devastating to the UK economy. It's worth recalling similar arguments made against the 1981 proposal for a maximum salary cap of four times average wage.

By Stuart Weir

/ 7 Feb 2014

The government's gagging law is still a dangerous shambles

While severely limiting the ability of civil society to function for a full year before a general election, the primary alleged targets of the bill - professional lobbyists - escape largely unharmed.

By Stuart Weir

/ 6 Nov 2013

A monstrous right royal carbuncle

Vernon Bogdanor would have us believe that the Prince of Wales’s “controversial” meddling in public policy is a good thing. But Prince Charles’s interventions and lobbying activities demean our democracy – and have deprived the public realm of great architecture.

By Stuart Weir

/ 12 Sep 2013

The government's new gagging law is a serious attack on Britain's civil society

While doing virtually nothing to fix the real problems of money in politics, the government is trying to introduce a new law that will shut down vast swathes of political commentary and scrutiny for a whole year before general elections.

By Stuart Weir

/ 3 Sep 2013

David Miranda: terrorist or tourist?

The debate roars on as Theresa May insists the detaining of our citizens is for our own protection, but how far and how deep can this controversy go?

By Stuart Weir

/ 27 Aug 2013

The double betrayal - review of NHS SOS

Normal 0 false false false MicrosoftInternetExplorer4 The left is forever being condemned for talking of ‘betrayal’. But it is our responsibility to describe accurately the lies and strategy that lie behind the dismemberment of the NHS and the blatant disregard of the people’s wishes – it is a ‘do

By Stuart Weir

/ 19 Jul 2013

Abu Qatada's saga is a triumph for British rule of law, not a failure

Normal 0 false false false MicrosoftInternetExplorer4 The demonisation of the European Court of Human Rights over the long failure to deport Abu Qatada is likely to be intensified by the Court’s ruling against whole life tariffs. Neither case will get the human rights perspective that they deserve

By Stuart Weir

/ 12 Jul 2013