Let the People Speak … But Make the Politicians Decide

There have been a number of recent calls for referendums, for two reasons. First, some argue that ratification of the reshaped EU constitution can only be done on the back of a referendum. Second, others argue that the 'disconnect' between politicians and voters means that more power should be transferred to voters. This article examines the constitutional position, and also assesses Britain's one national referendum, in 1975, and concludes that there is no advantage to be gained by transferring power away from Westminster

Conservatism

The term 'conservative' - denoting groups as diverse and incompatible as the religious right, libertarian free-marketeers and free-spending neocons - has been lost to politics. Yet the original conservative ideology, first developed in the eighteenth century by Edmund Burke, was concerned with managing change. Genuine conservatism has its own relevance in a complex and dynamic world where change is rapid, pervasive and dislocating. Conservatism transcends traditional politics, and has surprising applications - not least as the most appropriate and practical response to climate change. Conservatism by Kieron O'Hara is a revision of the traditional conservative philosophy for the modern age. It shows what a properly conservative ideology looks like today, and demonstrates that self-styled 'conservatives' actually promote damaging change in their own and other societies. Drawing on such great conservative thinkers as Burke and Adam Smith, philosophers ancient and modern from Plato to Wittgenstein, and today's social commentators such as Nassim Nicholas Taleb, Ulrich Beck and Jared Diamond, this outline of conservative philosophy lays bare our lack of understanding of our own societies, showing how risk pervades society and how it should be managed. It also proves that conservatism is distinct from neo-liberalism, neo-conservatism and the extreme positions of today's 'culture warriors'. O'Hara has written a complete and consistent description of a philosophy of change and innovation. His book shows how conservatism is an ideology sensitive to cultural differences between the US, Europe, the Middle East, East Asia and elsewhere, while highlighting the issues of technology, trust and privacy. This sample chapter sets out O'Hara's theory of green conservatism

The potential for ethanol production from sugarcane in Australia

The Australian sugar industry processes approximately 35 million tonnes of sugarcane per year from 400 000 hectares of land. Sugar remains the principal revenue stream from sugarcane in Australia with less than 60 ML/y of fuel ethanol produced from final molasses at present. Modelling has been undertaken to estimate the potential ethanol production from the Australian sugar industry for integrated facilities producing both sugar and ethanol from the entire sugarcane resource. Although research aimed at developing commercial processes is ongoing, the use of a proportion of the bagasse and trash for ethanol production, in addition to juice and molasses fermentation, would allow significant increases in the scale of ethanol production from sugarcane in Australia, increasing total industry revenues while maintaining energy self sufficiency

Carry On Cabby, Gender and the Local Industrial Power Nexus

This paper argues that the perceived homogeneity of the mass of 'Carry On' films is, to some extent at least, an illusion (fostered, no doubt deliberately, by the fact that they all have the same actors, scriptwriters, titles, and even jokes). Hence, sweeping generalisations about the films as a group are misguided. The paper argues that one film, Carry On Cabby, is actually premised on a highly reasoned and sensitive analysis of Britain’s post war industrial malaise and the effects of that malaise on the working class, together with a subtler than expected view of the way in which the post-war industrial situation affected relationships between the sexes. The theme of Carry On Cabby, as with so much post war British comedy, is “the battle of the sexes”; but it uses that standard to examine closely the need for change in industrial practice, taking a close look at the way in which change would affect the lives of “ordinary people.” Its conclusions are pretty safe and pretty conservative. But its analysis proves to be more prescient than those of either the governments of the 1970s, which, roughly speaking, attempted to preserve the status quo, or Margaret Thatcher’s radical Conservative government of the 1980s

The Enlightenment: A Beginner's Guide

Blamed for the bloody disasters of the 20th century: Auschwitz, the Gulags, globalisation, Islamic terrorism; heralded as the harbinger of reason, equality, and the end of arbitrary rule, the Enlightenment has been nothing if not divisive. To this day historians disagree over when it was, where it was, and what it was (and sometimes, still is). Kieron O’Hara deftly traverses these conflicts, presenting the history, politics, science, religion, arts, and social life of the Enlightenment not as a simple set of easily enumerated ideas, but an evolving conglomerate that spawned a very diverse set of thinkers, from the radical Rousseau to the conservative Burke

Narcissus to a Man: Lifelogging, Technology and the Normativity of Truth

The growth of the practice of lifelogging, exploiting the capabilities provided by the exponential increase in computer storage, and using technologies such as SenseCam as well as location-based services, Web 2.0, social networking and photo-sharing sites, has led to a growing sense of unease, articulated in books such as Mayer-Schönberger's Delete, that the semi-permanent storage of memories could lead to problematic social consequences. This talk examines the arguments against lifelogging and storage, and argues that they seem less worrying when placed in the context of a wider debate about the nature of mind and memory and their relationship to our environment and the technology we use