Access to land has long been one of the more important freedoms, and libertarians will be glad to know that the “More Land for Homes Campaign 1990” (a consortium of building societies, builders and builders’ merchants) is demanding that the authorities release more land for building. The Campaign estimates that up to two million more… read more »
During a squabble in the House of Commons one Tory whip described the condition of the Parliamentary Labour Party as “total anarchy.” His own side, on the contrary, is run like the Praetorian Guard: “If the chief whip says ‘jump out of the window’ we form an orderly line and out we go.” (Sunday Times… read more »
John Perlin A Forest Journey; The role of wood in the development of civilization. NY & London, W.W. Norton & Co. 1989. 445 pages, ISBN 0 393 02667 1. £14.95. It would hardly be going too far to say that in A Forest Journey John Perlin presents a society made of wood. Old Stone Age,… read more »
RATIONALISTS convinced that religion is on the way out might bear in mind that the world’s largest human gathering is still the pilgrimage to Allahabad that takes place every twelve years. Some 15 million people gather for ritual bathing. JOHN Chadwick, QC, is quoted: “Secrecy is the badge of fraud.” (Observer 29 July) It is… read more »
Revision of January 1990. IDEOLOGICAL COMMENTARY announces itself as an independent journal of systematic ideology, but it does not claim final knowledge of this theory; the formulation that looked like the ultimate last month needs alteration now, and the account given here will be subject to continuous revision. Systematic ideology is the creation of the… read more »
SOME BACKGROUND This party (with its companion parties) claims to be the only socialist, Marxist, revolutionary movement. It declares that socialism cannot be established until an overwhelming majority has accepted its case, but since it was founded in 1904 its membership has failed even to keep up with the increase in the world population. It… read more »
SPANNER, a New Journal for New Thinking Issue No. 1 [address], 52 pages, occasional illustrations, £1 SPANNER claims to be A New Journal for New Thinking; the list of contents runs: The Green Wave, Common Ownership, That Frame of Mind (discussing the principles of a socialist society), Neo-Connectionism (on artificial intelligence), The Road to Socialism, Standing… read more »
Resistance to the Poll Tax has encouraged the less thoughtful reformers and revolutionaries to believe that at last the people are starting to move in their direction. As one journal, Counter Information, puts it: The Poll Tax need not be a single issue campaign. We do not live in a vacuum. Anti-Poll Tax groups whether… read more »
“Scholars, load your texts!” The command opens Austin Meredith’s proposal for bringing study of Henry David Thoreau into the world of the computer. One CD-ROM (compact disk of read-only memory) can carry Thoreau’s complete works – “all books and drafts, magazine articles, journals, factbooks, letters to and from and about” – and still be about… read more »
GRADUATED income tax, and effectively unlimited picketing rights for trade unions, were introduced in the 1870s by Disraeli, Conservative Prime Minister. (Roy Jenkins in the Sunday Times, 13 May). from Ideological Commentary 46, July 1990.