Blog articles from the Infrastructure section of The Big Idea

Governance

The Big Idea > Infrastructure > Governance

Donald Trump, Elon Musk, God, and the American Declaration of Independence

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Colin Tudge questions the wisdom of one of America’s seminal texts How can we explain the rise and now the resurrection of Donald Trump – who didn’t simply seize power in some coup as so many autocrats have, but was actually chosen by the people in an apparently unrigged election?  The commonest explanation is that … Read more

Labour, the Tories, and the natural world 

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Neither of the leading political parties in Britain has proper respect for the natural world, or anything like. Indeed, says Colin Tudge, both are a million miles from what’s needed   The first thing we should ask of any political party and would-be government is that it should state its Goal.  What are they – … Read more

Why are governments so bad?

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Colin Tudge suggests that the reasons lie partly in our biology, partly in logistics — and partly in present-day, siloed education To the standard list of global disasters – global warming, mass extinction, famine, war, poverty, inequality, and general nastiness and injustice – we should surely add “bad governance”. For all of the most obvious … Read more

Is politics more than a distraction?

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Asks Colin tudge May 6: A good day for the Lib Dems and the Greens in the local elections yesterday. Not bad though less than decisive for Labour. A bad day for the Tories, though not as bad as they deserve. After Cameron the spiv, May the interregnum, Boris the malignant clown, Truss the star … Read more

Idiots and Gangsters

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And why in particular is the world’s agriculture so off-beam?

Governments must be on our side: the absolute importance of democracy

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Given that in practice we probably do need governments we need, first, to ask what we want those governments to do; secondly, to ensure that we install the kinds of governments we think we need; and, thirdly – and at least equally important – ensure that we can get rid of governments that fail to … Read more

Do we need governments at all?

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Tolstoy no less in his essay “On Anarchy” in 1900 asked whether we need government at all and concluded that on the whole we would be better off without – provided we, people at large, take responsibility for our own actions and behave as moral beings:  “The Anarchists are right in everything; in the negation … Read more