December 21, 2012 is not the end of the world. Even the ancient Maya themselves did not think so. The date does, however, mark the completion of a huge 5,125-year long cycle in the ancient Maya ‘Long Count’ calendar. Or at least it does if one accepts the correlation between the Long Count and our [...]
By John Williams, Senior Lecturer, Department of Sociology, University of Leicester It is the twentieth anniversary of the Premier League: time to reflect. In the 1980s Liverpool FC ruled English football and were a dominant force in Europe. That is until, in May 1985, hooliganism by the club’s fans at the European Cup final in [...]
Dr Paul Behrens, University of Leicester It hasn’t been a good year for the baddies of the world. In May, Osama Bin Laden found death at the hands of US special forces, in August, Atiyah Abd al-Rahman, Al Qaeda’s second in command, died (presumably in a drone strike), and now Muammar Al-Gaddafi, wanted for crimes [...]
Professor Gianni De Fraja, University of Leicester Recently the FT published a letter signed by a motley crew of 20 economists: some well known “right wingers”, some regular pundits, others neither. The letter called for the government to scrap the highest rate of income tax. I was among the signatories, my first ever letter in the [...]
Dr Oliver Daddow, University of Leicester The Hack-gate revelations about criminal journalistic activity at the News of the World newspaper raised a series of fascinating questions about journalism and politics in Britain. First, within a newspaper that helped pioneer honest and incisive investigative journalism, how had the phone hacking culture been allowed to take hold [...]
