Saturday 25 February 2012

The Children of Beatrice & Sidney Webb

Beatrice Webb reflecting on the London School of Economics (1895) and the New Statesman (1913), two British institutions that she and Sidney played the leading role in creating.

Beatrice and Sidney Webb, c1942

Webbs on the Webb 
September 14th 1936.

                          In old age it is one of the minor satisfactions of life to watch the success of your children, literal children or symbolic.  The London School of Economics is undoubtedly our most famous one; but the New Statesman is also creditable - it is the most successful of the general weeklies, actually making a profit on its 25000 readers, and has absorbed two of its rivals, The Nation and the Week-end Review.

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The Children of Beatrice & Sidney Webb by Andy Jack is licensed under Creative Commons
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Saturday 18 February 2012

An Israeli Dilemma

A cartoon by Ronny Gordon taken from the Jerusalem Post. source link

Rarely is life as straightforward as a cartoon like this might suggest; but they don't half help simplify things.
Escalating Middle East tensions are seriously bad for the whole world and the increasing complexity of this historical period is deeply concerning.
I realise that war is a great stimulus for change and makes people a lot of money, but if we end up with nuclear wastelands here and there we might as well all just give up. Bleeding egotistical folly. Plus, I've always wanted to go to Iran so if we could all just settle down and take a step back then I will get on with renewing my passport. 

Nothing Much Else To Say