Res Publica

I'm finding it hard to think of any good reasons why a democratic society in the 21st century should maintain a monarchy largely designed for the 10th century.

Bled dry by The Man

I had many original thoughts last week, but none of them made it onto weltschmertzed because they were all paid for by Fibb Porcquian Crocque. By the time I sat down to pen a line or two on here, the cupboard was bare.

If Milton were alive today, he'd be writing jingles for Pot Noodle.

And he'd be making a good deal more money than me, to boot.

stupid thing of the week: the government is aggressively cutting the deficit, because they say it is unfair to expect future generations to bear the burden of our debt.

Then they cut funding for university teaching by 80%, sending fees up by 200%. In other words, making future generations bear the burden of our debt. All they're doing is shifting public debt into private hands.

There is no economic argument for the cuts to higher education funding, so the motivation must be political. I don't necessarily have a problem with co-funding for higher education, but I do wish the government would tell the truth about what they're up to. Instead, they just run around shouting "deficit! deficit! deficit!" and while we're looking around frantically to see where the emergency is, they're picking our pockets.

The cat and the pigeons

Emperors around the world are proudly showing off their new clothes this week, thanks to the pioneering work of Julian Assange and his fearless band of Wikileakers.

The implications of this spectacular act of moral courage are astounding. The pompous moral posturing and irritating superiority of the ruling class across the world have been stunningly revealed for the monster deceits that we always suspected they were, and their tawdry schoolyard games are being tantalisingly revealed, cable by embarrassing cable.

Somehow, it seems, Sweden has been allocated the unfortunate task of smearing Assange by accusing him of sexual abuse. Meanwhile, the US political turds Sarah Palin and Mike Huckabee (of I Heart Huckabees fame) have called for a fatwah, revealing precisely how much these champions of freedom really cherish freedom, and how narrow the gap really is between the suited millionaires on Capitol Hill and the turbaned millionaires in the caves of Tora Bora.

Perhaps Julian Assange will turn up dead on a rubbish heap somewhere - a warning to any other would-be upstarts from the leaders of the free world. Let's hope not - the world needs people like this - like Mandela and Gandhi and... well... Assange, who are prepared not to be martyrs, who have the courage to try and change things despite overwhelming power ranged against them. Proper heros, in other words.