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Beware Britain: the Euroflush is coming to a toilet near you!
Let us hope proposals to harmonise toilet flushing across the EU are not bog standard, writes Dick Skellington. I tire of stories berating the European Union, especially those that lampoon its...
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Recovery plan is working – but can it produce?
Record numbers have priced themselves back into jobs – shifting political concern from loss of work to the cost of living, writes Alan Shipman. The UK economy grew 0.8% in the three months between July...
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The moral case for a one-off wealth tax is compelling
The Autumn Statement will neither introduce a temporary tax of the wealthy not provide long term tax reform, but the ideas should be taken seriously, writes Kenneth Rogoff.Should advanced countries...
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Hostility towards migrants is not just shameful but hypocritical
We are celebrating the life of anti-apartheid champion Nelson Mandela at a time when migrants and "foreigners" are increasingly exposed to savage and inhumane attitudes and legisation. Author and...
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Let us celebrate our wonderful place names
The British Isles are dotted with places seemingly named to amuse or irritate their inhabitants, writes Dick Skellington.The history of the British Isles is full of places with amusing and sometimes...
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The perfect gift for Michael Gove's Christmas stocking
A new book reveals the inventive world of the hilarious examination answer, writes Dick Skellington. With Michael Gove moving towards using final examinations as the single barometer of assessment for...
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The Twelve Ways of Cluelessness
Alan Shipman invites you to pick your best from his seasonal celebration of the best responsibility-dodging excuses in 2013.Long ago, before King Wenceslas went on the St Stephen’s Diet and yule logs...
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Tis the season to be jolly...
Merry Christmas and Happy New Year to all from cartoonist Catherine Pain and the rest of the Society Matters team.
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Pantomime villains are easier to find this New Year
It looks as if more and more of us will have had Christmas and New Year on Wonga, with 9 million in serious debt, and Britain's debt mountain over £1.4 trillion, writes Dick Skellington.I have looked...
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Xenophobia over Romanian and Bulgarian immigration masks a bigger concern
Worst-case scenarios invoked by the right ignore a bigger disaster: the impact on Britain if we no longer attract migrants, argues The Guardian's Hugh Muir.In 1887, Captain JCR Colomb, the very...
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Posh gatekeepers of the Net
Associate lecturer Steve Woods explores the Posh and Becks world of Mumsnet. The web has expanded the availability of knowledge. It is a tool which helps people use expert knowledge and lay knowledge...
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Fans in Britain would be supportive of a gay player
Football is not the bigoted blinkered world we think, writes the Independent's Sam Wallace. Robbie Rogers visited Leeds United last month to launch his former club's anti-discriminatory campaign. The...
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Do you know less about the world than a chimpanzee?
The world is probably in better shape than you think, writes Dick Skellington. Last summer Louis, the chimp known to millions as Brooke Bond, the suave face of the PG Tips adverts parodying James Bond...
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Would you buy a secondhand MINT from this economist?
Predicting which nations will take off in the 21st century can be a random process. Alan Shipman explains.Jim O’Neill is a more successful economist than I’ll ever be. He rose to the top of the...
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Bankers walk tall down Bonus Street
How inept does a financier have to be to forfeit their massive payout? asks Independent columnist Mark Steel. I wonder how useless you have to be as a banker before they don’t give you a bonus. If you...
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Politicians should never argue with the Fat Controller!
Recent accusations by the Shadow Transport Minister that Thomas the Tank Engine is sexist almost made Dick Skellington blow his safety valves.Every now and again a politician says something which...
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Why we should remember the Armenians
Next year sees the centenary of the Armenian genocide. Armenia has crucial links to the development of British and world civilisation as Professor Hovhanness I. Pilikian explains. Until Darwin’s...
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Social Science graduates more likely to be in a job than science graduates
Now there is a headline you don't read too often. Dick Skellington explains. Social Sciences a good grounding for useful employment? That's a statement that flies against the myth of social science as...
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Want to defeat UKIP? Then get more working class people into politics
If the left could get a few more "normal" people on side, perhaps it wouldn’t be left to the reactionary right to shake up the political establishment, writes James Bloodworth. Nigel Farage is a former...
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Working with Stuart Hall – a personal memoir
Bram Gieben, Social Science Staff Tutor in Scotland, reflects on what it was like to work with the great Stuart Hall (pictured), who died on 10 February. Newspapers and airwaves are full of obituaries...
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