Reading for Battle
Battle Readings is a regularly updated compilation of articles, essays, and opinion pieces relevant to the themes of the Battle of Ideas.
Choose a theme from the listing on the left to narrow your search, or view all readings.
Politics & Ideology
Scotland: the world’s most childish nation
The SNP thinks children should be trusted with votes in a referendum, but adults shouldn't be trusted with booze and fags.
Rob Lyons, spiked, 15 October 2012
The SNP thinks children should be trusted with votes in a referendum, but adults shouldn't be trusted with booze and fags.
Rob Lyons, spiked, 15 October 2012
Being Pro-Life Doesn't Make Me Any Less Of A Lefty
Listening to fellow pundits on the left react with rage and disbelief to the support by the Health Secretary, Jeremy Hunt, for halving the abortion time limit to 12 weeks, I was reminded of the late Christopher Hitchens. "[A]nyone who has ever seen a sonogram or has spent even an hour with a textbook on embryology knows that emotions are not the deciding factor [in abortions],"
Mehdi Hasan, Huffington Post, 14 October 2012
Listening to fellow pundits on the left react with rage and disbelief to the support by the Health Secretary, Jeremy Hunt, for halving the abortion time limit to 12 weeks, I was reminded of the late Christopher Hitchens. "[A]nyone who has ever seen a sonogram or has spent even an hour with a textbook on embryology knows that emotions are not the deciding factor [in abortions],"
Mehdi Hasan, Huffington Post, 14 October 2012
Vice Presidential Debate
Vice President Joe Biden and Republican challenger Paul Ryan hit the campaign trail on Friday after a combative debate in which they challenged each other's facts and claims while offering starkly different visions for the direction the country should follow.
ABC, 12 October 2012
Vice President Joe Biden and Republican challenger Paul Ryan hit the campaign trail on Friday after a combative debate in which they challenged each other's facts and claims while offering starkly different visions for the direction the country should follow.
ABC, 12 October 2012
And the Firewalls Came Tumbling Down
Sunlight might be the best disinfectant, but even the most ardent advocates of transparency reach for the sunblock once it gets too bright.
Evgeny Morozov, New York Times, 12 October 2012
Sunlight might be the best disinfectant, but even the most ardent advocates of transparency reach for the sunblock once it gets too bright.
Evgeny Morozov, New York Times, 12 October 2012
Can you be spiritual and not religious?
As religious observance is on the wane, people's desire to connect at some higher level faces a quest for new forms
Piers Benn, Independent, 12 October 2012
As religious observance is on the wane, people's desire to connect at some higher level faces a quest for new forms
Piers Benn, Independent, 12 October 2012
The EU’s Nobel has come at the price of democracy
Now be against the political institution in its current form is apparently to be anti-peace as well as anti-European
Dave Bowden, Independent, 12 October 2012
Now be against the political institution in its current form is apparently to be anti-peace as well as anti-European
Dave Bowden, Independent, 12 October 2012
Open Government Brasilia 2012
From the Public Leaders Network and the Open Government Partnership
Guardian, 2012
From the Public Leaders Network and the Open Government Partnership
Guardian, 2012
Troubled Families progamme shows absurdity of "Left/Right" classifications
An example of the difficulty in trying to classify policies as left wing or right wing comes with the Government's Troubled Families programme. It is being run by Eric Pickles and shows early signs of success. It is about reducing welfare burdens on the state, tackling crime and strengthening the family. So is it right wing? It is also about about turning round the leaves of those languishing at the bottom of society rather than just passing by on the other side.
ConservativeHome, 10 October 2012
An example of the difficulty in trying to classify policies as left wing or right wing comes with the Government's Troubled Families programme. It is being run by Eric Pickles and shows early signs of success. It is about reducing welfare burdens on the state, tackling crime and strengthening the family. So is it right wing? It is also about about turning round the leaves of those languishing at the bottom of society rather than just passing by on the other side.
ConservativeHome, 10 October 2012
The EU’s unstoppable ambition is stirring up trouble for the future
Our national differences are the strength of this continent. And the more they are upset by Brussels’s bureaucratic bullies, the likelier a violent response becomes. The reasonable solution to the EU’s current crisis is orderly dismantlement, like the dissolution of Czechoslovakia in the 1990s. The longer political leaders deny this reality, the likelier a Yugoslavia will be instead.
Thierry Baudet, City AM, 10 October 2012
Our national differences are the strength of this continent. And the more they are upset by Brussels’s bureaucratic bullies, the likelier a violent response becomes. The reasonable solution to the EU’s current crisis is orderly dismantlement, like the dissolution of Czechoslovakia in the 1990s. The longer political leaders deny this reality, the likelier a Yugoslavia will be instead.
Thierry Baudet, City AM, 10 October 2012
UK: Storm over Health Secretary’s support for 12-week abortion time limit
The government has ‘no plans’ to bring in new laws governing when women can legally have an abortion, Prime Minister David Cameron has said, following Jeremy Hunt’s comments in the run-up to the Conservative party conference.
Abortion Review, 8 October 2012
The government has ‘no plans’ to bring in new laws governing when women can legally have an abortion, Prime Minister David Cameron has said, following Jeremy Hunt’s comments in the run-up to the Conservative party conference.
Abortion Review, 8 October 2012
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