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| Wednesday 16 September 2009 |
Where were the vetting critics three years ago?
The politicians and children’s charities now questioning vetting regulations are the same people responsible for their creation.
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| Thursday 20 August 2009 |
How about safeguarding innocent adults?
In the name of protecting children, new vetting procedures will condemn adults based on hearsay and dubious decision-making.
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| Friday 17 July 2009 |
Why we should support this writers’ revolt
Josie Appleton of the Manifesto Club hails Philip Pullman and other children’s authors who are refusing to submit to criminal records checks.
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| Tuesday 7 July 2009 |
Taking a stand against the hyper-regulation of life
When everything from looking after kids to dancing in pubs requires a licence, Josie Appleton suggests a summer rebellion against regulation.
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| Wednesday 13 May 2009 |
Britain’s strange, silent strangulation of liberty
The organiser of Freedom Summer explains why defending civil society from the state has never been more important.
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| Friday 27 March 2009 |
A Green New Deal for saving America’s soul
Thomas Friedman’s Hot, Flat, and Crowded captures the extent to which green thinking is ingrained in the psychology of the Western elite, especially in that seat of has-been power: the United States.
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| Monday 8 December 2008 |
Are EU deaf or what?
The author of a new EU Phrasebook, launched in Brussels today, analyses European leaders’ utter inability to understand the word ‘No’.
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| Tuesday 11 November 2008 |
Across Britain, police are behaving like gangsters
The author of a new briefing document reports on how drinking control laws give the police absolute, unchecked power.
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| Tuesday 19 August 2008 |
Against all booze bans
The author of a report launched today calls for an end to the state control of public drinking. PLUS: Exclusive extract from a new study on the pub.
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| Friday 20 June 2008 |
Policing ‘touch’ in schools
Measures that prohibit patting a boy on the head or putting a plaster on a girl’s knee are killing the spirit of teaching and caring.
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| Thursday 12 June 2008 |
Let’s rebel against the new referees
From reality TV to school sports, faked activities controlled by outside judges have replaced real competition.
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| Thursday 5 June 2008 |
A government u-turn we should welcome
It was a mad idea to make businesses that employ under-16 paperboys or interns submit to vetting - thank God it’s been scrapped.
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| Friday 30 May 2008 |
You can’t care for kids unless you touch them
Under new guidelines, teachers can be chastised for patting a boy on the head or for putting a plaster on a girl’s knee. A stirring new book says these mad anti-touch measures are killing the spirit of teaching and caring.
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| Friday 25 April 2008 |
The cultural contradictions
of consumerism
Once, society celebrated money-making chancers and lauded prudent hard workers. Today, says a new book, it is plying us with dumbed-down ‘stuff’ in order to keep us infantilised.
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| Thursday 17 April 2008 |
London: what kind of city do we want?
Pubs for the public, free childcare, no more Green Belt... Manifesto Club members offer some words of advice to the next mayor of London.
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| Tuesday 5 February 2008 |
Criminalising acts
of kindness
The routine vetting of everyone who works with kids will sow suspicion and discourage volunteering. So why aren't volunteering groups worked up about it?
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| Friday 26 October 2007 |
Gaia theory: academic mysticism
James Lovelock’s Gaia theory started life as an interesting scientific hypothesis. A new book shows that it has since morphed into a mystical creed that sees Mother Earth as vulnerable and humans as wicked.
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| Wednesday 24 October 2007 |
Don’t play the ‘offence’ card
The convenor of the Manifesto Club calls for a New Deal for public debate: Stop hiding behind cries of 'offence!' and stand up for your beliefs.
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| Tuesday 16 October 2007 |
Eco-warrior vs Terracotta Warrior
A stunt to put face masks on the unique Chinese figures at the British Museum shows up the childish nature of climate change activism.
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| Monday 24 September 2007 |
Jumping over the citizenship hurdle
In testing immigrants on housing, banking and saints' days, the UK Citizenship Test sucks all the zest out of what it means to be a citizen.
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