Speaking at cross-purposes? The rhetorical problems of 'progressive' politics

On 22 January 2009 David Cameron launched the ‘Progressive Conservatism Project’ at Demos, a think tank previously associated with the centre-left. He made clear that he considered this a new departure both for the Conservative Party and for the country. His words were widely interpreted as an attempt to distance the party from Thatcherism and to move towards values more usually associated with the Lib-Lab ‘progressive tradition’ in British politics. This article questions the efficacy of this rhetorical strategy in reorienting voters’ impressions of the Conservative Party. It uses a 2012 YouGov/University of Nottingham survey to show that the word ‘progressive’ is not well understood by the British public. A plurality of survey respondents felt unable to define the word, and those who did tended to use politically neutral terms such as forward-movement, improvement and change. Very few defined it in terms of liberalism, left politics or social justice. Moreover, while many respondents did view Conservative politicians as ‘progressive’, they included Margaret Thatcher within this. The idea of ‘progressive conservatism’ might have seemed attractive to voters in that it signified optimism and change. However, for the majority, it is unlikely to have indicated a shift to the left

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A firing at the Anagama kiln, owned by Nils Lo

Physiologic factors affecting the germination of seed corn

This publication presents the results of a study of physical and physiological differences that exist between kernels of open-pollinated field corn harvested at different stages of development. Differences in physical characteristics of the kernels and in the rapidity of germination and of breakdown were found to be caused by physiological differences which, in turn, resulted largely from the stage of development at which the kernels were harvested. Studies of the effect of slow as compared with rapid drying, and of the value of selecting seed from plants grown on soil to which superphosphate was added are also reported. It is hoped that the results presented herein will help answer some of the questions pertaining to the effect of the time of gathering and methods of handling of seed corn upon its value as seed

A Study and the Calibration Of a Submerged Weir

Water means life to all living things. Without it, they perish. The National Association of manufacturers (14) reports that perhaps the largest single user of water is irrigators. It is estimated that anywhere from seventy-five to one-hundred billion gallons of water a day go for irrigation purposes. There being an ever-increasing need of efficiency in Water use for irrigation purposes, the accurate measurement of water to each irrigator is a prime necessity of every irrigation system. In many areas, the water supply is limited and thereby limits the area of irrigation. The problem, in this case, is that of getting maximum economic production from limited water supplies. This requires great care, both in preparation of the land and in application of the water, since most irrigators are charged for water service by the quantity used. Therefore, systematic measurement of the water to each irrigator is desired. Stanberry (18) indicates that emphasis should be given to increasing the efficiency of water utilization to permit the farmer to grow the crop he chooses. The standard unit for the measurement of flowing water in Englishspeaking countries is the cubic foot per second. This may be defined as a stream of such velocity and volume that one cubic foot of water passes a given point in a second of time

When and How Shall I Plant My Corn?

For five years early and late varieties were planted at three dates at five rates, checked and drilled

De novo spine surgery as a predictor of additional spine surgery at the same or distant spine regions

Introduction: Degenerative spine disorders are steadily increasing parallel to the aging of the population with considerable impact on cost and productivity. In this paper we study the prevalence and risk factors for multiple spine surgery and its impact on cost

Crossroads Rhode Island: Proposed Social Enterprise Business Plan

Crossroads Rhode Island provides their clients with a continuum of care that includes basic emergency needs, shelter, housing, case management and vocational services for individuals and families. In order to provide these services they rely on the generosity of their donors and supporters who have helped Crossroads to become the largest homeless services organization in Rhode Island. It is important to Crossroads that they stick to their core values of safety, respect, and effectiveness when helping the homeless or at-risk individuals and families secure stable homes

A new six-degree-of-freedom force-reflecting hand controller for space telerobotics

A new 6 degree of freedom universal Force Reflecting Hand Controller (FRHC) was designed for use as the man-machine interface in teleoperated and telerobotic flight systems. The features of this new design include highly intuitive operation, excellent kinesthetic feedback, high fidelity force/torque feedback, a kinematically simple structure, mechanically decoupled motion in all 6 DOF, good back-drivability, and zero backlash. In addition, the new design has a much larger work envelope, smaller stowage volume, greater stiffness and responsiveness, and better overlap of the human operator's range of motion than do previous designs. The utility and basic operation of a new, flight prototype FRHC called the Model X is briefly discussed. The design heritage, general design goals, and design implementation of this advanced new generation of FRHCs are presented, followed by a discussion of basic features and the results of initial testing

The 1945 Iowa corn yield test

The Iowa Corn Yield Test attempts to provide comparable performance records on a relatively large number of hybrid combinations. Some of these on which information is presented are well established strains of known performance while others are new and relatively unknown to most Iowa farmers. Data are presented on each hybrid for yield, stand, moisture, root and stalk lodging, ear height and dropped ears. A performance score has been calculated for use in evaluating the relative agronomic -value o f the hybrids tested. It is believed that the information presented should afford a reliable estimate on the relative performance of a number of hybrids when grown in different areas of the state