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Ethical Record Articles

The journal began in 1895 and is produced on an monthly basis. Primarily it has provided abstracts and edited essays of the Society’s Sunday Lectures. It has developed into a showcase journal of the Society’s activities and events at Conway Hall.

Drawbridge Britain – Where Did the Hostile Environment Against Immigrants Come From?

In March 2018, the Guardian published a story about a man whom they called Albert Thompson. No one knew it at the time but, amid the grind of news about Brexit and the impact of austerity, the paper was about to expose one of the greatest failures in public policy of modern times.

The Ethical Stripper

By Stacey Clare I’m often asked why I chose the title “ethical stripper”. My main priority as an activist and public speaker has always been to shift the discourse away from the traditional moralising about sex work and towards a more pragmatic conversation about how working conditions in the sex industry could be improved. It’s […]

Beating the hell out of Fake News

  The Oxford dictionaries declared “post-truth” word of the year in 2016, reflecting “circumstances in which objective facts are less influential in shaping public opinion than appeals to emotion and personal belief”. The rise of “fake news” has undoubtedly played a central role in this debate. Although there is much to be concerned about, the […]

Heritage, Culture, Knowledge and Cutting-Edge Technology

  In 1929, Conway Hall was unveiled with a niche in the foyer. This niche was designed to display a revered piece of artwork; a bronze bust of Dr Moncure Conway (1832 – 1907), celebrated writer, abolitionist and free thinker, for whom the building was named. However, in the building’s 80 plus year history the bust was never displayed […]

How the Mensheviks Lost the Russian Revolution

  Sometimes a political party may enjoy a massive lead over its rivals at the start of a contest, only to throw its advantage away through its own ineptitude. But this piece is not about the farce of Britain’s Conservatives in 2017, but the tragedy of Russia’s Mensheviks a century before that. When Nicholas II […]

The Story of Scepticism

  In common use ‘scepticism’ means a tendency to disbelieve or at least suspend belief in what you’re being told. But in philosophical circles it primarily means the tendency to disbelieve the evidence of the senses, or we might say, to not believe what we commonly take to be true about the world from our […]

Prospects for a solution to the Israel/Palestine conflict

  The conflict between Israel and the Palestinians is one of the longest running of modern times and is not comprehensible without some knowledge of its history.  I will first revisit the most important points of that history.  Then I’ll look at the attempt, beginning around 1991, to solve the conflict within the framework of […]

Stepping into Britain: The Early Human Occupation of Europe

As with many great discoveries they were found by chance. We had been working at Happisburgh for over a decade, but visited in May 2013 to continue geophysics on the beach. It was my colleague, Dr Martin Bates, who first spotted them. Lying on ancient estuary muds, he had found the oldest footprints outside Africa, […]

How Should the West Handle North Korea?

The Kim Cult Current North Korean national legend is very easily summarised. The Koryo Dynasty, between 918 and 1392, unified the peninsula. This was followed by what is called “feudal rule” until 1910, which was ended only by Japanese occupation. The Great Leader Kim Il Sung was born in 1912 (this is effectively year zero, […]

Dystopian Times

The election and assumption to office of President Trump in January 2017 and the Brexit vote and its unfolding implications have led to widespread discussions as to whether we are heading towards a “dystopia”. In the last month sales of Orwell’s Nineteen Eighty-Four have been massive, as concerned onlookers plumb the past for parallels with […]

New Frontiers in UK Politics?

The new leadership of the Green Party has called for a “progressive alliance” involving Labour, Greens, Plaid Cymru, the SNP and the Lib Dems to take on the Conservatives in a 2020 election. On 5 February 2017, Jonathan Bartley (Co-Leader, Green Party), Peter Taheri (Secretary/Chair Nominee, Hampstead and Kilburn Labour Party) and Timothy Barnes (Conservative […]

Is the Writing on the Wall for Liberal Democracy?

1. Liberal Democracy after Brexit and Trump Where do the Brexit vote and Donald Trump’s election leave liberal democracy? Both events are to do with the discontent of the disenfranchised and those experiencing economic and cultural insecurity. And both reveal that conventional politicians on the left and the right failed to understand this.(1) But the […]

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