Locals are from Earth; migrants are from Venus, Mars, Alpha Centauri, wherever

THINGS MIGRANTS SAY IN POLITE CONVERSATION (WHICH ARE TRUE): "Hello, new friend-of-friend. [if person notes ethnicity in conversation] Yes, I do like it here, thank you. Yes, I’m intending to stay here. Yup, the weather is great and the people are friendly. No, haha, fair, I’m probably still gonna support my home country team against … Continue reading Locals are from Earth; migrants are from Venus, Mars, Alpha Centauri, wherever

The importance of framing

In the lead-up to the 2010 UK general election, many civil libertarians of my acquaintance (not solely Screaming Loony Privatise The Army Libertarians, but people of all economic stripes who believe that broadly, trials are a good thing and torture is a bad thing) were suggesting that for all a putative Tory government's likely failings, … Continue reading The importance of framing

To the Daily Mail, Genghis Khan was a fellow-traveller

The simple fact of the matter is that capitalist democracy, for all its crippling limitations, has been immeasurably less oppressive and a lot more democratic than any communist regime, whatever the latter's achievements in economic, social and other fields. - notorious communist Ralph Miliband. Hat tip to @durrant_james on the Twitters.