Dan Hind
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The Finance Curse: Introduction By Dan Hind
It is now well known that many countries which depend on earnings from natural resources like oil have failed to harness them for national development. In many cases it seems even worse than that: for all the hundreds of billions of dollars sloshing into countries like oil-rich Nigeria, for instance, such places seem to suffer… Continue reading
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Video: Dan Hind: Democratizing the public sphere should be of acute interest to progressive movements
The interview was made during Dan Hind’s visit to Zagreb and participation in the Balkan Forum of the 6th Subversive Festival 4-18th May 2013 Continue reading
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What If They Held A Constitutional Convention and Everybody Came? By Dan Hind
As it happens a coalition of left-wing groups have recently announced their plan to establish People’s Assemblies Against Austerity. Everyone has their own hopes, wishes and fears for the assemblies. For myself, I hope that people pick up on the idea of a constitutional convention and use the assembly form to discuss the fundamentals of… Continue reading
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Leveson and Leviathan, or What the Papers Won’t Say By Dan Hind
At the moment the press are taking full advantage of their privileged position to talk a lot of nonsense about the menace that statutory regulation would pose to a free press. The unnamed authors of a Telegraph editorial tell their readers that “the growing clamour for press regulation backed by statute threatens a priceless British… Continue reading
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Leveson and Leviathan, or What the Papers Won’t Say By Dan Hind
At the moment the press are taking full advantage of their privileged position to talk a lot of nonsense about the menace that statutory regulation would pose to a free press. The unnamed authors of a Telegraph editorial tell their readers that “the growing clamour for press regulation backed by statute threatens a priceless British… Continue reading
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Introduction: The Needs of Oligarchy by Dan Hind
The collapse of Britain’s finance-dominated economic model in 2007-8 and the scandals that followed in quick succession mark the beginning of a constitutional crisis. How this crisis is resolved will determine the future of the country. I believe that republican doctrines and habits of mind provide valuable resources for those who want Britain to become… Continue reading
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The Long and the Short of Press Regulation By Dan Hind
Free expression is important. Its importance is often couched in terms of the common good. A society in which people can speak freely is one in which injustice can be remedied, corruption punished and so on. But it is also a good for the individual. Free speech is best means by which we can discover… Continue reading
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Introduction to “Well, How Did We Get Here?”
This essay tries to explain how we got here. By which I don’t mean the recent events leading up to the crash of 2008 – these have been discussed in dozens of books. Instead I want to set out the older and specifically British back story, both economic and political. Continue reading
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The BBC’s Coverage of Southern Europe by Dan Hind
Yesterday’s main news bulletin on BBC 1 somehow managed to miss another large demonstration against austerity in Lisbon, where tens of thousands gathered in the capital’s Praca de Comercio square. The bulletin also didn’t find time for yet more protests in Madrid. Continue reading
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Greek lessons By Dan Hind
Could political radicals learn a few lessons from how Syriza created a diverse coalition in Greece? By Dan Hind Continue reading
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Ed Miliband and the Political Mainstream By Dan Hind
Ed Miliband has just posted an article in which he notices the existence of the occupation of Saint Paul’s, and of ‘hundreds of similar demonstrations in cities across the world’. The piece is a masterclass in political positioning and it deserves a little close reading. Continue reading
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Caught between God and Mammon By Dan Hind
A noted Conservative politician and author, Boris Johnson, yesterday invoked demonic powers in a blasphemous outburst against the people camping outside St Paul’s Cathedral. In what can only be described as a Satanic parody of the ritual of exorcism Johnson cried, ‘In the name of God and Mammon, go’. Continue reading
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“I Demand to Know What You’re Demanding!” Some Remarks on Programme at OccupyLSX By Dan Hind
There is something very striking about the occupation in the City of London. From the outset the ordinary dynamics of protest appeared to have been suspended. The form was different, for a start. This wasn’t a march from A to B, with its accompanying sense of an ending. But more than that, the occupiers weren’t… Continue reading
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Media Reform in Britain By Dan Hind
We are here because we know that there is something profoundly wrong in the communications sector. It has been obvious for a long time that much of the media are incapable of describing the world when doing so would disrupt the interests of powerful institutions and individuals. Continue reading
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Talk Amongst Yourselves By Dan Hind
On Saturday 14 October people will be heading into the Square Mile, the centre of the UK’s financial sector, in conscious imitation of Occupy Wall Street and similar actions in Europe and the Middle East. Continue reading
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Media: The Leveson Inquiry: Should We Care? By Des Freedman
The aftermath of the phone hacking scandal and the establishment of the Leveson Inquiry, ‘is a hugely significant moment both for the British media and for British democracy’ and that ‘the spell of media power is facing its most serious challenge to date’. Given that official inquiries rarely generate genuinely radical proposals and we have… Continue reading
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Interrogating Contemporary News: Asking the Right Questions By Natalie Fenton
The Leveson inquiry has been launched to investigate phone hacking and the culture, practices and ethics of the press; there is a Lords Select Committee on the future of investigative journalism; a joint Select Committee on privacy and injunctions; all of which will feed into a Communications Review leading up to the New Communications Act… Continue reading
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The Aaronovitch Code By Dan Hind
I’d more or less put David Aaronovitch out of my mind recently, what with the paywall and everything. But he turned up on Newsnight last night as part of the programme’s efforts to erase memories of the previous night’s now-notorious ‘ask the public’ episode. Continue reading
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The Limits of Acceptable Controversy By Dan Hind
The British media in their current form can neither regulate themselves or report adequately on their own activities. These failures must be added to their demonstrable inability to describe the broad outlines of the economic system in the run-up to the crisis of 2007-8, and their failure to expose the government’s manipulations and deceits in… Continue reading
The New Dark Age 