Author: James Bartholomeusz

  • The Question of Free Speech Is Back on the Agenda

    The Question of Free Speech Is Back on the Agenda

    For our Swedish friends Blå Ögon (Blue Eyes) is probably old news, but the TV drama has just reached the UK’s Channel Four as the latest serving of ‘Scandi noir’ for British viewers. Set in a slightly reimagined version of present-day Sweden, the series follows an election campaign closely fought between the ruling Labour Party…

  • Without a Political Alternative, the Panama Papers Change Nothing

    Without a Political Alternative, the Panama Papers Change Nothing

    Marx himself could not have written it: a secretive law firm, headquartered in a tiny Central American country, whose sole raison d’être is to help the world’s super-rich and super-powerful circumvent democratic oversight of their activities. Amongst Mossack Fonseca’s clients are several prominent Western politicians, the hit man cousin of Syria’s President Assad and the…

  • After Brussels, We Must Be Vigilant of Our Liberty as Well as Our Security

    After Brussels, We Must Be Vigilant of Our Liberty as Well as Our Security

    It did not take long for the Eurosceptic Right to bend the tragic attacks on Brussels to its own advantage. Here in Britain, UKIP leader Nigel Farage came under fire from multiple sources after he referred to the Belgian capital as the ‘jihadi capital of Europe’ and the Schengen Agreement, which has eradicated border-checks between…

  • Nationalism Needs More than Breaking down – It Needs Dissolving

    Nationalism Needs More than Breaking down – It Needs Dissolving

    In Response to ‘Breaking down the Term Nationalism‘ by Andreas Dafnos Last week, Andreas posted an article arguing that the blanket condemnation of nationalism found in pro-European thought is too heavy-handed. Instead, we should draw a distinction between an exclusionary holistic form of nationalism and an inclusionary liberal form. The former is expressed most clearly…

  • Is UKIP Here to Stay?

    Is UKIP Here to Stay?

    Like radioactive particles, radical political movements are inherently unstable. Organisations on both the far-Right and far-Left have a reliable tendency to implode just as they seem to be reaching the apex of their popularity, ripped apart by the conflicting imperatives of pragmatism and ideological purity. This has certainly been the case for the British far-Right…

  • What Happened to the Uniforms?

    What Happened to the Uniforms?

    The interwar years were the golden age of political imagery. As during the revolutionary era of the late-18th Century, the rise of new mass movements was accompanied by an equally potent visual vocabulary, disseminated via new technologies that could reach potential supporters like never before. In contrast to earlier eras, however, the 1920s and 30s…