Spain Versus Catalonia
- September 26, 2017
- by
- Matt
Political struggles demand that you take sides, but there are some political confrontations that you just wish weren’t happening. Watching the struggle for Catalan independence unfold over the last seven years, I have certainly not felt like a neutral or indifferent bystander. Indifference is not possible when dealing with a country – Spain, that I love – and a country within a country – Catalonia, where I lived for nine of the best years of my life and which I also love.
Throughout the last seven years I have often felt...
History, Peace, and Beauty: On Barcelona’s Ramblas
- August 18, 2017
- by
- Matt
Of all the massacres perpetrated in Europe in the name of Islamic State, yesterday’s slaughter in the Ramblas has a particular personal resonance for me. I spent nine years in Barcelona, living near the Ramblas for part of that time. Even when I moved further away from downtown Barcelona, hardly a week went by in...
The United Kingdom of Insecurity
- June 20, 2017
- by
- Matt
According to conventional political wisdom the first duty of a democratic government is to afford security and protection to all its citizens. This objective is often misleadingly conflated with the notion of ‘national security’ – a principle that supposedly incorporates the duty of protection but actually often overrides it. National security isn’t...
Mayday! Mayday!
- May 02, 2017
- by
- Matt
There are some politicians who look better from a distance, and Theresa May is definitely one of them. May and her advisors are clearly aware of this, and they have done their best to shield her anything approaching close scrutiny. They have refused to let her participate in political debates. In an absurd attempt...
The Anglo-Spanish War
- April 02, 2017
- by
- Matt
One thing about political reality – in the end you can’t avoid it. You can try, as Theresa May and her weird little Brexit government have been doing for the last eight months or so. You can beat your rhetorical chest and bare your teeth. You can threaten this and promise...
2016: The Year of Living Fearfully
- December 28, 2016
- by
- Matt
There was a time – it seems many years ago now – when governments in the Western world told their populations that things were getting better, and that they were helping them to get better. In those days voters by and large believed them, and made their political choices from amongst a cluster...
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