Category: democracy
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Ethnonationalism: Last Refuge of Globalism
Philip Cunliffe thinks we have no national interest in ethnonationalism. (Long read) Ethnonationalism has reared its head in British politics, sowing division on the Right and providing vindication once again for the Left’s perennial prophecy of a looming fascist menace. It is an unsurprising development. As the electorate has grown increasingly frustrated by the failure…
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Britain Against the Yookay: Nation Against Empire
Philip Cunliffe identifies the source of the increasing fragmentation of British politics and society in the imperial structures of the state, and its long experience of relying on devolved government and sectarianism to frustrate the national self-determination of the colonised. We live in the Yookay. Everyone instantly recognises their lives and surroundings in the social…
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Geopolitics at the End of the End of History
Lee Jones recently spoke to a conference of logistics professionals about the rapid changes in global politics. He argued that the current chaos is the result of the continuing decay of the old neoliberal order, and that this is leading to the militarisation of international relations, regionalisation of the world economy, and the redundancy of…
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Changing the Regime, Building the Nation
Philip Cunliffe explains why nation-building is the solution to the impasse in Western politics identified by Perry Anderson as the Regime. In a recent essay for the London Review of Books, Perry Anderson plots out the deadlock confronting political parties of both left and right across Western states, and notes that this deadlock paralyses both…
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Death Warmed Up
Peter Ramsay argues that the British right’s proposal for a Great Repeal Act only reveals the futility of its approach to the nation. An online Anglofuturist put out a video last week weaving together the words of the Tory politician Robert Jenrick, ex-Reform MP Rupert Lowe and conservative historian David Starkey, each promoting the proposal…
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The Politics of Planning
Aaron Wells explains how Labour’s new Planning and Infrastructure Bill is unlikely to untangle the political problems in the planning process that plays such a large part in Britain’s building crisis. Housing Secretary Angela Rayner MP talks a big game about ‘taking on the blockers’ who stand in the way of development, but NIMBYism and…
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Vance Widens the Horizon
Peter Ramsay on JD Vance’s era-ending Munich speech. I knew I was far from alone as I gasped with astonishment listening to JD Vance speak at the Munich Security Conference last week. It may be a low bar, but this was the most powerful and enjoyable political speech I can recall. There was no soaring…
The Northern Star 