Before New Labour came to power, when reform of Britain's House of Lords was in the air, Anthony Barnett and Peter Ca

The fate of Tibet and its unelected superstar figurehead has captured the attention of western liberals, not to mention the US government. But the real fascination of Tibet is not its exoticism but its similarity to the rest of an undemocratic global system, argues Paula Cerni

There has been a recent public outrage over anti-piracy lobbyist amendments to a European Parliament Telecom reform bill. The amendments would both implement a 'three-strikes' rule, which would cut off internet access for anyone suspected of illegal file-sharing, as well as giving government control to which internet software and services could be 'lawfully' used. On 7 July 2008, in Brussels, politicians voted in favour of the addition of these amendments to the Telecom law which will be voted on in September.

Another stitched-up ALMO vote just in time for the upgrading of housing (i.e. mortgagee home 'ownership') to Top Government Priority!  (For those of you who've just joined us, an ALMO is the pre-privatization of council estates palmed off either by Brezhnevite 'voting', as here in Lambeth, or by simple decree, as in Hackney, on tenants who stubbornly fail to volunteer for transfer to the private sector.)  In this case the miraculous 51% majority was delivered by excluding 'spoiled' answers to questions like:

http://www.artscouncil.org.uk/artsdebate/

The Arts Council has got a blog on... As part of the 'first ever public value enquiry' into the arts, ACE is creating an elaborate set of feedback mechanisms, one of which is a website discussion currently well underway at Artscouncil.org.uk.