Tag / United Kingdom
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Advertising’s Insidious Role In Social Media Influencing
The screen illuminates, and dopamine is released. We eagerly bring the device to our face and we begin to light up as well. We swipe through dozens, even hundreds of digitized pieces of information. We scroll through the typical baby photos, the glamor-clad celebrities, and an ad or two. There goes another ad, a shot…
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The Borders Around Our Own Empathy
When a suicide bomber detonated at an arena concert in Manchester in May 2017, it shook America to its bones. A little more than a week later, when a car bomb exploded at a busy market in Kabul, Afghanistan, America merely shivered. Terrorist attacks are ubiquitous and hard to keep up with, and an individual’s…
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The Lady’s Ironclad Legacy
Thatcherism: love it or hate it, what remains incontrovertible is the Iron Lady’s clear influence on modern-day politics. In 1979, just twenty years after her first election to the British Parliament, Margaret Thatcher made history, becoming the first female Prime Minister of the United Kingdom and one who propelled her Conservative Party to a forty-four-seat…
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Tensions Rise Over Spectacularly Meaningless Islands
The Falkland Islands or, if you ask Argentinians, Las Islas Malvinas, have long been a bone of contention between Argentina and the United Kingdom. Although their destiny was considered sealed by the UK’s emphatic defeat of Argentina in the Falklands War of 1982, tensions over the islands are on the rise once again. Objectively, the…
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Thoughts on Cameron’s Big Society
The inefficient provision of government services…out of control government spending…up to our ears in debt… In the UK and the US alike, politicians and pundits flood the airwaves with these catchphrases. Indeed, the idea that government is overreaching and needs to be reined in has come to dominate the political debate on both sides of…
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Of Rotten Boroughs and Electoral Reform
When the general election held last May in Britain produced a center-right coalition government, the Conservative leader David Cameron offered to his Liberal Democratic counterpart, Nick Clegg, a few compromises to sweeten the deal. These agreements included increased funding for national healthcare, banking reform, and, most importantly for Clegg, provisions for long-overdue electoral reforms. Since…
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Europe Flying Again
After days of cancellations, about half of Europe’s 27,500 flights are expected to be airborne today. The delays come after the Eyjafjallajökull volcano is Iceland erupted on March 29th this year, spewing an ash cloud into the atmosphere that has taken almost a month to clear. This comes as a huge relief to passengers stranded across…
