Whilst many transitional governments have indicated that they are committed to victim-centered processes of truth recovery, it is important to make the crucial distinction between the institution of mere procedures for change (and the rhetorical lip service that these can involve) and the need for a theoretical platform for truth recovery and political and social rebalancing which has at its core a fundamental recognition of the importance of language rediscovery and victim storytelling. This chapter provides a critical analysis of the nature of the destruction of language that occurs in violent societies, tracing the ways in which the voices of victims have been excluded by violent repression and marginalised or ignored by many truth commissions. Central to victims' social, cultural, and political recuperation is the reclamation of language that complements dialogical processes of truth recovery.

This chapter considers the roles of Michael Logue, who was the spiritual leader of a generation of Irish men and women, and that of the Catholic Church in the political and social changes in Ireland in the late nineteenth century. Logue had been ordained at a time of great crisis for the Papacy and the European Church. Since the middle of the nineteenth century the shifting political landscape of Europe had diminished the temporal authority of the Pope. In Catholic countries across Europe ecclesiastical appointments were handed out as court patronage, while the hierarchies in Protestant countries, including Ireland, were very much left to their own devices. Logue was a proficient Irish speaker and he was appointed to the post. In addition he was also given the deanship of a seminary and the pressure of both posts weighed heavily on him. Furthermore, Logue inherited a diocese with a Catholic population of 110,000. In his diocesan report to Rome in 1881, he revealed some of his concerns over education, poverty and issues such as the abuse of alcohol and gambling.

This chapter draws a brief comparison between the liberal emphasis on equality of opportunity and New Labour's rhetoric on social inclusion, to show how both have normalised neoliberal concerns. Specifically, both liberal equality of opportunity and the third way ideal of social inclusion foreground the importance of labour market participation as a cure for a range of social ills. Equality itself, rather than being seen as a precondition of democratic citizenship, is increasingly repackaged in terms of a right of inclusion to the labour market. Considerations of economic opportunity strongly inform political rhetoric not only on class, but also on the equality of women, ethnic minorities, and the disabled. Whilst the value of choice within both neoliberalism and liberal luck egalitarianism has largely functioned as a category of economic life, this chapter draws on feminist and socialist arguments to re-emphasise an opposing conception of active citizenship that focuses on democratic participation in collective decision-making.

This book discusses the concept of regulatory quality, approaching regulatory reform by taking the institutional context and the policy process into consideration, and using indicators to measure the quality of policies designed to enhance the ability of governments and EU institutions to deliver high-quality regulation. It designs regulatory indicators by considering four classic tools: impact assessment; consultation; simplification; and access and regulatory transparency. This chapter introduces the main themes and explains the regulatory reform and better regulation policy.

Tony Blair's foreign policy following the invasion of Iraq continued to display the features of a high perceived degree of influence over events, certainty in the framing of issues, and the use of tightly held decision-making processes, coupled with a determined closeness to the United States. Blair's room for manoeuvre was quite narrow during this late period of his prime ministership—having staked his career on Iraq and involved the British state in a war against the better judgment of much of the domestic political scene, he would have found it very difficult to recant the decision or resile from its consequences. The dynamics that had emerged in the run up to war—an eager prime minister seeking to rationalize and multilateralise US policy without having a very compelling hand to play—continued into the postwar phase. The extent to which Iraq had damaged Blair's standing in the UK, but conversely had strengthened his core foreign policy convictions, was manifest in the summer 2006 Israel–Hezbollah war.

The period between 1880 and 1918 would see prohibitory legislation put on the statute books for the first time, the passing of legislation formalising arrangements for the reduction of licences, and the State itself taking direct control not only of licensing regulations, but the actual ownership of breweries and pubs. It would see the Liberal Party repeatedly stake its reputation on the drink question, and a parade of leading politicians publicly identify the drink question as the single most important social problem facing the country. Does the State, while retaining free trade principles, have a right to directly reduce the scale of alcohol trade? This chapter looks at the drink question in England at the turn of the century. It focuses on the Licensed Victuallers Defence League, the test case Sharp v. Wakefield and its implications for local magistrates, the National Liberal Federation's adoption of local option as official policy, and the approach taken by the influential Church of England Temperance Society.

This chapter highlights sexual difference, the history of sexual difference and how sexual difference can and might be lived in the future. The significance of Cixous's deployment of language, the terms she chooses and the metaphors she draws upon cannot be considered incidental. As Deborah Jenson suggests in ‘Coming to Reading Hélène Cixous’, ‘Cixous is inclined to resurrect terms which in contemporary theory, have largely been relegated to the “metaphysical broom closet”’. Sexual difference is the difference that makes a difference in her refiguration of antagonistic subjectivities. Through her theorisation of sexual difference, Cixous comes to explore the possibilities of a feminine economy of desire and engages with the possibility of love as a condition for a post-secular calling forth of divinity.

This chapter looks at the ‘necessary context’ of Europe, in which many of the arguments about English identity are now being discussed. It explains that those who support the integration of England into the European Union believe that the process is historically inevitable, while those against the integration argued that it is politically undesirable. Despite their very different objectives, however, both pro-European and anti-European arguments have shared a common thesis of inevitability. The chapter also discusses aspects of English divergence in Europe, and suggests that the European Union is of value only so long as it ditches the unwarranted presumption to tell people that they are European and that they must act in a prescribed manner.

This chapter considers the evolving place of minorities in elective politics. It traces the roots of President Obama's victory in majority public opinion and determines the supporting attitudinal currents that can be determined over the years. The chapter tries to provide a clearer understanding of the arrival of a black President and reflects on whether the UK has witnessed the kind of parallel changes required for a British Obama.

This introduction presents an overview of the key concepts discussed in the subsequent chapters of this book. The book explains what the philosophical project of the films themselves is. Providing an answer to this question gives the book a two-fold purpose. Firstly, addressing the issue of the films' own project requires the delineation of a new methodology for inter-relating philosophical and filmic texts. Secondly, this methodology will be put into practice through a detailed assessment of the ways in which the trilogy takes up and metamorphoses Jean Baudrillard's Simulacra and Simulation. The book then examines the complex construction of key objects, specifically mirrors and television/computer screens, in Baudrillard's work and their reformulation in The Matrix. It also addresses the re-emergence of the word/image dichotomy in philosophical analyses of the first film and its impact on the reading of narrative and character.

This chapter presents an introduction to the study in this book: the encounter between woman and man, man and woman. An encounter characterized by belonging to a sexed nature to which it is proper to be faithful. Luce Irigaray is a formidable and passionate presence, both in person and in her writings. Irigaray has not identified herself with any particular movement. She declines the term ‘feminism’. She does not accept ‘-isms’ of any variety, as she indicates that they constrict the free play of exploration. It is a difficult task to introduce Luce Irigaray's work, particularly her ideas on religion and God. Primarily, this is because she does not want to be identified with any orthodox religious tradition. Second, she does not want to be classified according to conventional academic categories. Irigaray demonstrates that she is not satisfied with the liberal solution of equality to amend the prevailing situation. She believes that a constructive rethinking of the notion of ‘sexual difference’ is perhaps the most vital issue.

While support for increased participation is a constant theme in the political rhetoric of the elites, decisions to submit more issues to the voters do not always live up to their idealistic billing. The decision to hold referendums is a case in point. This chapter considers why governments have submitted issues to referendums. Referendums have become part of the constitutional tapestry of the UK. In sum, the referendums held in Britain can—using an elaborated version of Morel's classification of referendums—be categorized as: decision-solving referendums: membership of the EEC (1975) and the Labour Party's decision to hold a referendum on a possible change to the electoral system; legislative referendums; strategic referendums: Scottish and Welsh devolution (1997); joining the Euro; legitimation referendums: directly elected mayor and an assembly for London 1998; regional assembly for the north east; politically obligatory referendums: the Good-Friday Agreement and the European Constitution.