Socialism is (still) Impossible… Reflections on debating the Socialist Party of Great Britain’s Adam Buick – 20 years on
Twenty years ago at Chiswick Town Hall in West London, on the 17th January 1992, I debated Adam Buick of the Socialist Party of Great Britain on the subject of the impossibility of socialism. (This debate is one of hundreds of SPGB debates listed on Wikipedia, here.) With the...
BBC's "Farming Today" defends tax-funded EU farm subsidies & higher food prices
Radio 4’s “Farming Today” and its defence of European Union farm subsidies (broadcast 6.30am, 20th August 2011) was surprising only in how one-sided was the presentation of the debate. Rather than the balanced, dispassionate presentation of the case for and against government subsidies to farmers – something that one might have expected from...
The Judgement of Paris @ 35 years – how competition is improving wine
For wine drinkers, The Judgement of Paris – the blind taste-testing that took place 35 years ago today, 24th May 1976 – was a major turning-point in the development of new and better wines the world over. Organised by a British wine seller and expert, Steven Spurrier, The Judgement of Paris...