TO THE ASTONISHMENT OF THE MARTIANS… By Professor Duncan Richard Shaw Madrid, 11 July 2022 In the 1970s one of the most inventive (and amusing) television adverts in Britain was for Smash powdered mashed potato, an American-inspired initiative from the legendary Cadbury chocolate house. The ruling oligarchy of Mars has sent a reconnaissance mission to …
THE MISSED OPPORTUNITY OF 1991 – AND THE DECLINE OF THE WEST By Dr Duncan Richard Shaw Madrid, 9 July 2022 A hundred years ago, with Europe in ruins after World War One, the most influential book of the decade was Oswald Spengler’s (dystopian, prophetic, depressing) The Decline of the West. Spengler believed that the …
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VERY MIDSUMMER MADNESS: THE IDIOCIES OF BRITAIN’S UNWRITTEN CONSTITUTION By Professor Duncan Richard Shaw, PhD Madrid, 7 July 2022 Have you ever heard this expression: if you don’t know where you going, you’re likely to end up somewhere else? Or this one? Maps are essential; planning a journey without a map is like building a …
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IS DEMOCRACY REALLY POSSIBLE UNDER CAPITALISM? By Professor Duncan Richard Shaw Madrid, 6 July 2022 Back in 1985, Ken Livingstone was the embattled left-wing leader of the Greater London Council, a sharp thorn in the side of British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher. At exactly the same time as Thatcher was privatizing almost all of Britain’s …
TO APPEASE OR NOT TO APPEASE? THAT IS THE QUESTION… By Professor Duncan R Shaw Madrid, 29 June 2022 To appease Vladimir Putin or not to appease Vladimir Putin – that is the question facing the NATO alliance, at its summit this week here in Madrid. Indeed, that was the big question at last week’s …
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WELCOME, MERE MORTALS, TO PLANET MURDOCH By Dr Duncan Richard Shaw Madrid, 23 June 2022 While 99 per cent of the world’s population struggles with Putin’s war, with the cost of living crisis, the ongoing Covid tragedy and soaring early summer temperatures, the ‘top one per cent’ are ordering their underlings to prepare their polluting …
VLADIMIR PUTIN AND JOHN LENNON: FIFTY YEARS AFTER IMAGINE By Professor Duncan Richard Shaw Madrid, 18 June 2022 Fifty years ago, John Lennon added his massive moral weight to the worldwide global campaign to end the appalling Vietnam War, which President Nixon had cynically extended to hapless Cambodia. Although Yoko Ono was not everyone’s cup …
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CRY, THE BELOVED COUNTRY By Professor Duncan R Shaw Madrid, 11 June 2022 In 1948, Alan Paton denounced South Africa’s degradation towards the frightful apartheid system by writing Cry, The Beloved Country. The award-winning novel depicted a country torn apart by racist injustice, international isolation and political corruption. Instead of writing a complete novel about …
HOW TO LIVE DECENTLY IN AN INDECENT WORLD By Dr Duncan Richard Shaw Madrid, 9 June 2022 What I am going to try to do in these columns is offer my analysis of different aspects (political, ecconomic, social, cultural) of the contemporary global situation. I have been told that I am fairly well qualified to …
WILL THE US GUN MASSACRES CONTINUE? By Dr Duncan R Shaw Madrid, 16 June 2022 Last week I started this series of columns (How To Live Decently In An Indecent World) by criticizing the current British political system; this week I am going to do the same with the American system. The postwar generation in …
