Search Results

“... choices that generate greater economic security which in turn allows for a steadier politics; fairer business practices that restore faith in political decision-making which in turn enables better regulation of business. Win-win is the only way to restore faith in the system.There are two big barriers in the way. The first is that someone has to go ...”

“... the G77 countries took advantage of Cold War struggles – and high oil prices – to push for a fairer deal. At COP27, China and the G77 banded together to approve the creation of a ‘loss and damage’ fund, which will compensate poorer countries for environmental destruction, against initially strong US opposition. But China’s own sphere of influence ...”

“... class and steerage, between the bridge and the engineroom.’ To this comment Jonathon Porritt and David Winner respond by saying that ‘greens, by contrast, object to the standard Marxist indifference to ecology and point out that it is usually the poor who suffer the worst effect of environmental degradation.’ The interviews recorded in their book contain ...”

“... not mean that it is impossible to argue against general rules on the grounds that they could be fairer – a law that forced pilots to retire when they went bald, or converted to Islam, would clearly be grotesque. What it does mean, though, is that it does not make sense to argue against general rules on principle, simply because they are general. What ...”

“... opinion to revive – a revival which let Tito off the propaganda hook. He is clearer and fairer on Kadar’s role, on the foxy Party Secretary’s appreciation of trends, as the duel developed with Nagy for political direction of what was left of the Party; and on the essential point that the real danger, in Soviet eyes, came, not from a revival of ...”

“... second volume of The Best Short Stories of John Buchan, excellently and informatively edited by David Daniell. In Buchan’s social outlook there is a strong ‘zoological’ streak (somewhat recalling Kipling). It is strong in The Half-Hearted, which I happen to have been rereading. People in this novel belong to ‘kinds’. Lewis Haytoun, when unhappy ...”

“... Bible into Chinese. (‘He boned up feverishly on Manchu,’ enthuses his other biographer, David Williams, in his schoolboyish way.) Borrow had to argue in Russian with the Tsar’s board of censors, hire and supervise ill-educated Estonian compositors to set up Mongolian print (which, he said, ‘differs little from the Mandchou’) and prepare to ...”

“... if so, we’ve already discerned the purpose and have no need of its illustration. Another way, a fairer one, would be to ask how you would feel if, as of tomorrow, you were spared the sight of other people’s indignity, in stills or footage, for the duration. How you answered would depend, perhaps, on the way you fantasised your exemption coming into ...”

“... Though few anticipated the agreement, it is not difficult to understand why David Cameron and Nick Clegg should have made a bargain to share power. By forming a coalition Cameron secured protection from his mutinous right wing, while Clegg became the pivotal player in British politics. What is more surprising is the degree of unity the government has so far exhibited ...”

“... radio, time-saving and sometimes life-saving conveniences which he disdained. In the words of David Grann, whose compelling new book, The Lost City of Z, tries to make sense of the man and his last mission, Fawcett ‘ventured into blank spots on the map with little more than a machete, a compass and an almost divine sense of purpose’. He was an ...”

“... core which has increased in relevance with the passage of time. Such, at any rate, is the theme of David Reisman’s two volumes of intellectual biography and analysis – the most careful and thought-provoking exegesis yet to appear. Crosland was a man of contradictions, as Reisman shows, a hedonist who was also a puritan, and so on. Perhaps the biggest ...”

“... them from talking about ‘the moral landscape’, fMRI studies aren’t taken very seriously. As David Eagleman writes in his recent book Incognito, ‘imaging methods make use of highly processed blood-flow signals, which cover tens of cubic millimetres of brain tissue. In a single cubic millimetre of brain tissue, there are some one hundred million ...”

“... is half-true but explains too much and too little. This racist country voted for Obama twice. A fairer explanation might go back to the financial collapse of 2008 when Americans had a general fear and were shocked by what the banks and financial firms had done to us. ‘In an atmosphere primed for a populist backlash’, as John Judis wrote, Obama ...”

“... Israel offered Egypt a separate peace. Nasser could have had in 1968-9 what Sadat achieved at Camp David. Indeed, he might have got Gaza as well. But Nasser was opposed to Egypt’s deserting its allies and concluding a separate peace. ‘The West Bank,’ he declared, ‘is more important to me than Sinai.’ The substitution of Nixon for Johnson made no ...”

“... of biblical truth. For the modern reader, such relentless classicism can cause odd problems. As David Daiches once remarked, we are often in the uncomfortable position of forming our knowledge of classical mythology by inferring from Miltonic allusion. Most modern students probably first encounter Ovid’s Narcissus through Milton’s Eve, gazing on her own ...”