Why I am finally discovering what history is for
I cheated in history at school.
It is not something I am particularly proud of, but in retrospect I am not sure whether it says more about me or about the way history was taught.
The Moral Dilemma of a Soldier: is obedience always right?
On 20 July, Germany held its annual public oath ceremony for new Bundeswehr recruits in Berlin. The date was no coincidence. It commemorates the failed assassination attempt on Adolf Hitler by Colonel Claus von Stauffenberg and a small group of German officers in 1944.
They failed. They were arrested, tortured and executed as traitors.
Continue reading “The Moral Dilemma of a Soldier: is obedience always right?”
Does the Makerfield Test Really Work?
When Local Justice Meets National Responsibility
One of the most attractive political ideas to emerge in Britain this year is also one of the simplest.
Andy Burnham calls it the Makerfield Test.
His argument is straightforward: government should judge its success not merely by economic growth, favourable statistics or the approval of financial markets, but by whether life genuinely improves for ordinary people in communities such as Makerfield and thousands of places like it.
At first glance, it is difficult to disagree, isn’t it?
The Accidental Outsiders
I have come to realise that the most valuable education I ever received was learning to see the same country from two completely different points of view.
I was reminded of this recently while listening to Andy Burnham speak about the “Makerfield test”: his promise that national policy should be judged by whether it improves life in places such as Makerfield, rather than merely satisfying the economic and political orthodoxies of Westminster.
I was attracted to the idea immediately. That was not altogether surprising. Burnham and I have several things in common.