A vote for the Lib Dems could check the Tories

"The choice you have to make at any particular election has to take into account the precise conditions of the time. I've never been tribal in politics and in different elections have voted for at least six different parties, including all the main ones. Right now, the main choice is between a majority Conservative government and some other alternative. Since the first prime ministerial debate, that alternative is just not going to be a majority Labour government. If it were, it would be one crippled by a lack of legitimacy, as Labour is clearly not going to be the largest party on the popular vote. So, realistically, it's a hung parliament or a Conservative government. So what do you do?"

Latest post at Guardian Comment is Free

Who's the thinker in the white?

"'Socrates has scored!' cries Michael Palin. 'The Greeks are going mad! Socrates scores, got a beautiful cross from Archimedes. The Germans are disputing it. Hegel is arguing that the reality is merely an a priori adjunct of non-naturalistic ethics, Kant, via the categorical imperative, is holding that ontologically it exists only in the imagination, and Marx is claiming it was offside.' Not quite as pithy as Ken Wolstenholme's 'they think it's all over', but that was the joke behind Monty Python's philosophers' football match, in which for 89 minutes the players wander around too lost in thought to actually kick the ball. Until, that is, Archimedes has his 'Eureka!' moment. 'The clash of two opposites is the whole point,' former Python Terry Jones tells me. 'You can't think about football too much, you just have to do it.'"

Article in today's Guardian

Real Respect: Dealing with Shared and Contested Values - London, 28 April

Giving a talk at the Institute of Education's Philosophy of Education research seminar series, at 17:30. Full details here

Why women will remain outnumbered

"Bidisha says she's fed up with being the token woman, but if you invite more women just because they're women, all you get are more token women."

Latest post at Guardian Comment is Free

World Update - BBC World Service

I was on BBC World Service's World Update on 23 April discussing nuclear deterrence. The programme is no longer available to listen again.

The philosopher kings of UK politics

"When asked who his favourite philosopher was, George W Bush famously answered 'Jesus Christ'. At least he had one. Politicians tend to avoid philosophy like the plague. Oliver Letwin, for instance, has a PhD on the subject but when I asked him if that was a disadvantage in politics he answered, 'massive', without hesitation. 'I do my best to conceal it.' Another brainy MP, Tony Wright, once found himself quoting Mill in a parliamentary debate, 'and I just realised how odd that was, and how embarrassing it was.' So when we hear the Nick Clegg spent a lot of time reading John Locke, the news stands out."

Post at Guardian Comment is Free (21 April)

Is driving more dangerous than flying through ash?

"Should government decisions about risk reflect the often irrational foibles of the populace or the rational calculations of sober risk assessment? Should our politicians opt for informed paternalism or respect for irrational preferences?"

Article in BBC News Magazine (21 April)

David Aaronovitch recommends Do They Think...

"Baggini’s is by far the most useful book to have beside you ... during an election"

David Aaronovitch recommends Do They Think Your Stupid? in The Times (17 April)

The moral of the volcano is life’s really too simple

"Our food security is greater today than ever because we do not depend on a small number of sources but trade with producers all over the world. The balance may not be ideal, but the idea that we would be better off returning to almost full dependence on local crops and livestock is absurd."

Article in The Times (published 17 April)

Oxford Brookes Philosophy Society - 21 April

Talking today on the moral blindspot of our age. Details here.

Nicholas Lezard's paperback choice

"What is pleasant about Baggini, and explains why he has such a presence as a popular professor ('do not assume that because someone is described as a "popular philosopher" lots of people actually like him'), is that he uses familiar examples and takes us through them with clarity and good humour; we may not consider ourselves philosophers but we can appreciate it when he tells us an anecdote which suggests that Eric Bloom from Blue Öyster Cult has a low opinion of Folkestone."

Nicholas Lezard picks Do They Think You're Stupid? as his paperback choice in this week's Guardian.

David Cameron's American dream

"Cameron's promise is built on a lie. The gross inequality in the United States shows that it is a myth that individuals and communities can create a better, fairer society without large-scale government involvement in public services and redistribution of wealth. Europe's achievement has been to show that relatively big government can create a more equitable society, while preserving what is most precious about personal freedom."

Last night's post at The Guardian's Comment is Free

Lourdes: realistic about religion

"To respect religion properly we need to appreciate how different people relate to different beliefs in different ways, and that constant, sober piety is the exception, rather than the rule. It was a local priest who once told my father, 'the problem with most people is that they take religion too seriously'."

Post yesterday at Guardian Comment is Free Belief

Ill fares the land?

"Intellectuals tend to dismiss this as mere managerialism, a politics that strips away values. But questions of value are deeply imbedded in both the priorities we set and the means we use to achieve them. Values need not disappear, they simply have to apply less to overarching ideology and more to the nitty-gritty of policy-making."

Review of Tony Judt's Ill Fares the Land in this weekend's FT