Politicians have long focused on “being tough on crime” – to ensure that those who are jailed are not just unable to escape their confinement, but also “feel” the punishment. Yet if we want prisoners to rehabilitate, the evidence says this strategy does not work. Such punishment usually fails to deter reoffending. On the contrary, …
I first became interested in politics through reading books by libertarians. I read books by Richard Maybury, who amongst other things, believed that America should never have got involved with WW1 and WW2, that Medicare and Social Security are unconstitutional, and that heroin should be legal. However wacky his ideas may seem in retrospect, his …
Why does everyone assume these days that integration is such a good thing, asks Giles Fraser in The Guardian. Louise Casey’s “community report”, published last week, simply took it for granted that it’s inherently unhealthy for communities to keep themselves to themselves. But why shouldn’t they preserve their distinct character? It’s precisely that which makes …
Continue reading ‘Is integration really such a good thing?’ »
Questions are swirling about the British government’s apparently lax oversight of its major outsourcing contractor Carillion before it collapsed last week, leaving thousands of British private-sector workers unpaid. Up to 30,000 small firms are thought to be owed money by the sprawling company. It has emerged that in the three months leading up to its …
Continue reading ‘The latest UK privatisation rip-off and disaster’ »
We’ve long been concerned with the loneliness crisis here on the Epicurus Blog. Loneliness is becoming more of a problem, and not just amongst the elderly. Despite the rise of social media (or perhaps because of it), we have fewer friends, and we aren’t as close to them. Ties between neighbours aren’t as strong as …
