Here’s a scenario for you: you have a time-machine, but it will only travel back to Christmas 1996. Labour are obviously about to win next year’s election, and you’re allowed one bet, on this question: who’s going to be the most influential political philosopher of the next decade? Granted, it’s a funny sort of time-machine, but where does your tenner go?
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Eagle-eyed regular readers will have noted the day (Thursday) the time (nearly lunch already) and will be wondering what’s happened to our Thursday rant this week. For everyone who hates it: I’m sorry, we haven’t decided to kill it (yet). But it is having a week off, mostly because I was going to have a crack today and I’m too busy. On stuff that feeds my two-year-old, not my ego, that is.

However, we are looking for more Ranters. The rules, remember, go like this:

1. Open to anyone, blogger, commenter, whatever. Even journalists.
2. 350 words maximum.
3. Any subject at all, as long as you have an opinion. Not that there’s a shortage of those here usually… We won’t censor it, beyond the usual caveats.
4. Links or short quotes are fine, as long as they’re just to illustrate your point, not to make it for you.

We give you the floor and a chance to promote your blog or opinions here. Of those we’ve run already, I’ve especially enjoyed this and this. But feel free to rant about whatever you like — they have all attracted lots of readers and even occasionally sparked off decent debate in the comment boxes. The next couple of weeks are spoken for already, but after that we have openings. Leave a comment below or email me at fairvote AT gmail DOT com to book your place in the sun.

On Friday, Chris Dillow asked: are suicide bombers rational? It’s a fine question, which he partly answers with reference to this new paper by Eli Berman and David Laitin (pdf):

Suicide terrorism, they [Berman and Laitin] say, is rational if you believe terrorism will be rewarded in the hereafter, or if you are altruisitic and believe your death will benefit you family and compatriots.

But there are (at least) two questions of rationality here. Who exactly are we asking if suicide terrorism is rational for? Read More

I don’t know if he’s doing it just to piss Cameron off, but Basher Davis has started spewing out policies like a man who’s just downed a bucket of Blue Bols. We’ve had the policy to join the Ligue communiste revolutionnaire in sticking it up Brussels, the policy to entrench inherited privilege forever, and the policy to throw weed-smokers into a pit of poisonous snakes. Or something like that. Now, we’ve got another one for the clients. The big one: Bring Back The Grammar Schools. (Or even, create 60 more secondary moderns.)

There’s a lot of it about. The logic of the critique of comprehensives is simple: they’re a sham. Read More

Writing in today’s Guardian, Jonathan Wolff, head of UCL’s philosophy department, reminds us that, while everyone’s talking about secondary schools, there remain unresolved issues in the HE sector, centred around (you guessed it…) funding. He doesn’t pretend to have all the answers — and neither do I. But I think a statement of principles might be in order. A tentative answer to the question: what should a decent, left-liberal higher education policy look like? Read More

In the comments to this typically sharp post by Chris, fellow-Sharpener Phil and I have been debating torture. Among other things: what it is about torture that makes it inappropriate. Phil (rightly) questions its reliability in generating decent evidence: Read More

This much is obvious, isn’t it? In 2003, what faced the Blair government in Iraq was a binary choice between two lemons. To invade or walk away: two poor options. It’s hardly surprising they chose badly. But what has happened since the invasion proves something wholly unintentional, and maybe unexpected: political repression works.
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I’m in a public service frame of mind this week, so here’s another one: starting soon on The Sharpener will be a regular open-mic guest slot. We might call it The Rant. Or we might not. (There is only one Ranter, after all. ) If I get organized properly, we may even pick a regular day of the week to run it.

These are the rules:
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The Sharpener’s new weekend focus on kul-cha has left me in a bit of a bind. I can’t stand opera, loathe ballet and fell asleep the only time I’ve ever been to the theatre. (Macbeth, Stratford, fifth-form Shakespeare trip.) But I do like wine. Even better: free wine.

So, next month I’ll be going to the Wines of South Africa mega-tasting, in Old Billingsgate in the City of London. What does that have to do with you? Simple: this is a public service announcement to let you know just how easy it is to blag free entry to a “press and trade only” event. Read More

From the distinguished to the idiotic, Germany’s election chaos results are getting kicked to death this week by electoral system-conservatives. The anti-PR brigade are sharpening their knives with glee. But why? The German result is irrelevant to the PR debate here in the UK, for at least three reasons: Read More