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Book Review: Humankind

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Book Review: Humankind - A hopeful history

by Rutger Bregman, 481 pages; 2020

https://www.amazon.co.uk/Humankind-Hopeful-History-Rutger-Bregman-ebook/dp/B082SXZFC9

To be very clear, in my (not so) humble opinion, this is a v

REVIEW: Facism - A Warning: Madeleine Albright.

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This was my holiday reading! A very important book.

BOOK REVIEW:

FASCISM – A WARNING: Madeleine Albright.

Madeleine Albright was well-placed to write an urgent warning about the resurgence of Fascism. She was born in Czechos

Don't Be Fooled by Abstraction

Many of our conflicts and difficulties are the result of our tendency to create abstractions and then argue about them. Is justice more important than freedom? Is positive discrimination fair? Given the choice, should you betray your friend or you

Improving Ourselves

We have a page about improving the world; this is the other side of the coin - if we want the world to improve, we need to get better ourselves.

Improving the World

All of this site can be seen as a search for ways to improve the world, make it a better place. This page is for the 'meta level' question - how do we promote and implement all the specific ways to make the world a better place? These are the ideas

Facts Are Not Enough

It often feels like the world is going backwards. Facts are clearly not enough, so what can we do to change hearts and minds?

How can we affect or stimulate positive change?

How do we affect change in an environment where there is so much mitigating against change. This short article is an invitation to suggest ideas!

Spirituality

As social creatures we need to share our spirituality, and shared spirituality is what we call 'religion'. You can have your own private spirituality, but as soon as you try to communicate it, you need words; and as soon as you find a way which help

The Life and Teaching of Jesus

Jesus was a Jew, brought up within the Jewish faith. We cannot understand what he did and taught if we ignore this context. But Jesus had a very nuanced understanding of the Jewish faith, and of His own role within it.

The Bible - a Short Background

The Bible as we have it today, is two collections of books. Two faith communities have created these collections, and said that these are helpful books, worth preserving and reading. The collections are referred to by Christians as the Old Testamen

Binary Thinking

This is a common theme running through many of the issues we face: it is very easy to see the world as a set of binary choices - either this is true, or that is. But, even if our choices are sometimes binary, the issues we face rarely are.

I Will Build My Church

Jesus promised His first disciples, "I will build my church", but it seems unlikely that the Church we see today was what He had in mind at the time. If we are genuinely seeking to follow Jesus, then we have to ask ourselves: when Jesus promised to

The ethics of immigration

What are the ethical issues that should underpin our approach to migration and immigration. This article seeks to ask the questions, and point to the answers rather than address the practical implications and policies that could result from such an a

The real problem ...

The real problem is the classic Catch-22 that the UK has deliberately created for anyone needing to claim asylum.

To claim asylum, you have to be physically present within the UK to claim asylum. One cannot apply for asylum from abroad.
To legally g

What is asylum all about?

Claiming asylum is about applying for "refugee" protection and assistance. The UK policy is defined here:

Claim asylum in the UK

https://www.gov.uk/claim-asylum

This document above says:

You must apply for asylum if you want to stay in the UK as a

What is the small boats crisis?

Recent "Irregular migration" statistics from March 2022 up to March 2023

Irregular Migration is the term used by the Home Office to designate those entering the country without permission to do so. The document linked below outlines the bare statis

Recent media coverage

The Radio 4 programme "More or Less" recently had a segment covering the Net Migration figures
https://www.bbc.co.uk/sounds/play/m001mc9g (From: 10:24 to 15:31)

The BBC One programme "On Sunday with Laura Kuensberg" recently had a large segment about

What is migration all about?

People want to come and live in the UK - but many also want to leave! The key issue is net migration, not merely immigration as such.

Immigration concerns government policy regarding who to allow into the UK (see discussion below). The word "immi

Immigration

Immigration is a big and emotive subject. This article is broken up into a number of handy chunks to help make it more readable and easier to navigate. Extensive use has been made of official UK government statistics and statements issued by the U

What could be done?

Here are some broad-brush ideas which might have a positive, humanitarian impact on the situation.

Relieve the "small boats" crisis by creating legal means to apply for asylum from outside the UK. Furthermore, allow people to come to the UK on a

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