Stuart Weir - openDemocracy (Page 3)

No retreat, no surrender

Labour’s shadow Lord Chancellor Sadiq Khan spoke out strongly for universal human rights, the Human Rights Act and checks on government powers. Will his party colleagues, and possibly their potential allies after 2015, the Lib Dems, be as bold if they are in power?

By Stuart Weir

/ 3 Jul 2013

In the thick of it - a review of '5 days in May: the Coalition and beyond'

Normal 0 false false false MicrosoftInternetExplorer4 Andrew Adonis’s insider account of the Lab-Lib coalition talks provides a vivid and vital, and often surprising, insight into the crucial politics of the day – and is also particularly relevant to the prospects for both parties after the 2015 g

By Stuart Weir

/ 11 Jun 2013

The best way to defend the UK's role in the EU is to be honest about its failings

Nigel Lawson's provocations on the EU question raise some important points. It is no longer tenable to trot out the same tired arguments for the Union. It has very serious failings. A positive account of the UK's membership must address them head on.

By Stuart Weir

/ 14 May 2013

Transparency International raises serious concerns about corruption in the UK

The creep of the market into almost all areas of public life has brought with it a steady and damaging growth in corruption. Both the media and the political class insist the UK is largely free of corruption, a claim that no longer stands up.

By Stuart Weir

/ 22 Apr 2013

Be it ever so humble!

Forget “Home, Sweet Home”. The British government’s bedroom tax humbles families in social housing, depriving them of the dignity to call their home their own, forcing many of them to move and driving some into homelessness.

By Stuart Weir

/ 18 Apr 2013

UK becomes world's second largest outsourcing market

Stuart Weir responds to news that the UK is now second only to America as an outsourcing market. The UK's "new enclosure movement" is fast transforming the British state into one marked by foodbanks and 'toll booths'.

By Stuart Weir

/ 29 Mar 2013

‘Not in Our Name’: Why MPs remain powerless to stop Britain going to war

The massive 2003 public campaign against Blair’s attempt to take the UK into war against Iraq demanded a war powers rule in Parliament to ensure that no government could ever again commit the country to war without Parliament’s approval. A decade later, the fight goes on for the ruling.

By Stuart Weir

/ 25 Mar 2013

Add voter suppression to the disadvantages of the poor and marginal

The debate over the boundary review has overshadowed an imminent threat to British democracy. Proposed changes to the electoral register are likely to see voter numbers fall significantly. Who are these people? The young, the poor and the disadvantaged.

By Stuart Weir

/ 29 Jan 2013

A 'Fresh Start' for Britain in Europe?

A new manifesto, 'Fresh Start', has been published by a group of Conservative MPs proposing a new relationship between the UK and EU. The (not so hidden) agenda: sweeping away many of the rights that protect British workers from exploitation.

By Stuart Weir

/ 18 Jan 2013

The welfare state is dead – what is rising from the grave?

The old welfare state cannot survive the global financial crisis. Beneath the Punch and Judy debate, what is the Coalition putting in its place? And what is the alternative?

By Stuart Weir

/ 15 Jan 2013

Three reasons why I'm changing my mind about a British Bill of Rights

A Commission has just reported in whether Britain needs its own Bill of Rights instead of relying on the European Convention. It divided as a Conservative majority says it does. They convinced Stuart Weir, a long time supporter of such a Bill, to change his mind!

By Stuart Weir

/ 18 Dec 2012

Tax avoidance: indignation only gets us so far...

There has been a huge shift in public opinion in the UK on big corporations and rich individuals avoiding tax. How best to build on this?

By Stuart Weir

/ 11 Dec 2012