Matthew Carr's Blog, page 48

The EU’s ‘war on smugglers': militarising tragedy

Watching the response of European governments and politicians to last week’s horrific events in the Mediterranean has not been an edifying spectacle.  We have seen a lot of solemn faces and a great deal of handwringing but nowhere, absolutely nowhere, … Continue reading →

The resistible rise of Katie Hopkins

Ok I know I shouldn’t write about Katie Hopkins.  I am aware that she is a self-seeking toxic sociopath who feeds on toxicity and says hateful things in order to get people to talk about her.   Her motives for doing … Continue reading →

The EU’s Dystopian Borders

Many people, including myself, have asked how many migrant deaths in the Mediterranean Europe is prepared to tolerate before it takes serious action to try and prevent them.  After the events of last week I think we have the answer.  … Continue reading →

Eduardo Galeano 1940-2015: Presente

I was sorry to hear of the death of Eduardo Galeano  this week.    There was a time when he had a big impact on my own political formation and my own understanding of history.   I first read Open Veins … Continue reading →

Election 2015: Reinventing ‘Compassionate Conservatism’

Last weekend Ian Birrell, the former deputy editor of the Independent and speechwriter for David Cameron suggested that Lord Snooty needs to show compassion in order to invigorate a Tory election campaign that he rightly describes as ‘narrow, repressed and … Continue reading →

Yemen: stirring the cauldron

What exactly has to happen in order to demonstrate once and for all to those who regard war and militarisation as the solution to the many problems that the Middle East faces that they were catastrophically wrong? The casualty estimates … Continue reading →

Nigel Farage’s Easter message

As most Christians will be aware, one of the most frequent miracles performed by Jesus is the healing of the sick.   Blindness, deafness, insanity, epilepsy, leprosy, paralysis, haemorrhage, and fever – all these maladies are included in the  27 separate … Continue reading →

Iran nuclear agreement: war averted?

Given the unfolding mayhem that is currently devouring the Middle East, yesterday’s framework agreement over Iran’s nuclear program is a positive development that should be cautiously celebrated.  Ordinary Iranians have special reason to celebrate, because they are the ones, as … Continue reading →

What’s so interesting about William Tecumseh Sherman?

There are a lot of books to read, and for those of you that like to spend time, maybe too much time, on the internet, there is a lot of stuff to read that isn’t in books and which doesn’t … Continue reading →

Why 1.3 million dead are not worth mentioning

It’s one of the essential tenets of the new age of humanitarian war that war is not as bad as it used to be, or at least that it’s not so bad that the costs outweigh the gains.   War, or … Continue reading →