Rupert's Read

Lord Maurice Glasman talks about the politics of Blue Labour.   On Thursday 17 May, Lord Maurice Glasman will give a lecture entitled Transgressive and Faithful: The Politics of Blue Labour   as part of the new PSI/PHI lecture series –   Philosopher Kings? How philosophy informs real politics today .   Lord Glasman was appointed a Labour life peer in 2011. He is Director of the Faith and Citizenship Programme at London Metropolitan University.   A response to the talk will be given by UEA's Professor Alan Finlayson.   The lecture, which is free to attend, will be held in Lecture Theatre 1, UEA at 6.00pm.   ...

I’ll be chairing this; do come!:     Jon Cruddas, MP talks about The Good Society   On Thursday 10 May, Jon Cruddas will give a lecture entitled The Good Society as part of the new PSI/PHI lecture series – Philosopher Kings? How philosophy informs real politics today . Jon Cruddas is a Labour politician, who is MP for Dagenham. A response to the talk will be given by UEA’s Dr Liz McKinnell (PHI).   The lecture, which is free to attend, will be held in Lecture Theatre 1, UEA at 5.15pm.   www.uea.ac.uk/phi/eventsnews/events/jon-cruddas                

Looking forward to revisiting Dacorum Green Party!: 'Public Services Cuts and more...Cuts?' 7.45 pm Friday May 11th Gadebridge Community Centre - Rossgate, HP1 3LF Come along to our local community meeting and find out about alternatives to severe austerity. Join a debate on what we should do to rebuild our society. Can we create a more stable economy that is not driven by greed, speculation and inflated financial values? Speakers :Rupert Read, Co-ordinator of the Green Party in the Eastern Region Maurice Sheehan, UNISON Councillor Maureen Flint (Labour), Gadebridge Ward Chair : Paul Harris, Chair of the Dacorum Green Party   Contact: Paul Harris, 15 Fallowfield, HP1 3N7

Do join us over the next 5 weeks for our series of lectures on how philosophy informs real politics today.  Thursdays at UEA, free entry, all welcome.

This picture of a remarkable direct-action demo at Bayer earlier this week has just come to my attention. According to the documentary film, THE VANISHING OF THE BEES, which I have just seen, Bayer's 'technology' is probably partly responsible for the terrifying mass die-offs of bees in the USA and other countries (including the UK). This as I understand it is the reason that lay behind what happened at Bayer Norwich the other night. Congratulations to those who managed to raise this banner drawing attention to the situation, at Bayer!

Do come to this screening! I’ll be talking about existentialism in Michael Mann’s films in my remarks.

So, my ‘guardians for future generations’ event alongside Polly Higgins last night went very interestingly. The super-jury decided, on balance, that fracking would be against the basic interests / needs of future people…   Those of you who came last night will be aware that very unfortunately we could not make workable-Skype-contact with Sandor Fulop, the Hungarian Ombudsman for future generations. This morning, he emailed me this wonderful msg: "I would have been eager to share and discuss with you some ideas about the two intriguing and high professional quality suggestions of the yesterday evening program.   As concerns your ideas, Rupert, I wanted to strongly second the idea of the group solution rather than nominating an individual as responsible for the protection of future generations. As concerns the veto right I would call it a last resort solution, while I would put the stress in the operation of the new organisation to deliberation, system...