New Zealand’s Responses to the 1916 Rising

When the Irish-born Archbishop of Melbourne heard that Michael Collins had been executed, he broke down weeping: “Michael they have shot him”. According to one of his biographers, Brenda Niall, “[s]omething in Daniel Mannix was released in the aftermath of the Easter Rising” and he was soon to play a decisive role in defeating two conscription referenda. The Australian Prime Minister, Billy Hughes, later complained to the British Prime Minister, David Lloyd-George, that the Irish had “killed conscription”.

„We will go through this TOGETHER!“ Bemerkungen zu Vulnerabilität und zum kompulsiven Resilienzvarieté in politischen COVID-19-Krankheitsnarrativen

<p>In a first, tentative and explorative review, the paper discusses issues of resilience performance in socially addressed illness narratives in the context of political communication and self-representation. Using the examples of U.S. President Donald Trump and British Prime Minister Boris Johnson and their Covid-19 disorders, the paper explores forms of media self-representation as resilient politicians. In a critical reading, the gender-coded displays of vulnerability and masculine resilience are related to the performance of the supposedly normal. Taking Judith Butler as a reference point, the illness narratives of strength are interpreted as a defense against and fear of weakness and threat. In the conclusion, the initial observations are related to questions of new forms of authoritarianism, so-called soft authoritarianism. The article is intended as a sketch and as a preliminary consideration for a future systematic study of vulnerability, gender, and political communication. </p>

THE DISCURSIVE FORMULATION OF BREXIT: DECISION, OPPORTUNITY AND NEEDFUL AGREEMENT

This study sets out to examine the British Prime Minister Theresa May’s speeches delivered through her premiership. It aims to unveil the ideological discursive formation of Brexit after the referendum, and to investigate the way May squares the rhetoric to persuade the general public and the British/European political Elites to deliver the Brexit deal, though she campaigned pro-European Britain. I conduct a corpus-assisted discourse study approach, using discourse analysis methods and corpus linguistics tools for a case study of a purpose-built corpus of the Prime Minister speeches (2016-2019). The analysis revealed that the Brexit representation eschewed any identifi cation with ‘Europe’ and boosted Eurosceptic sentiments by (1) rationalizing the decision to leave the European Union; (2) proposing a better future after Brexit; (3) appealing to the British people’s emotion to support the Brexit deal.

Contact

Beginning in late 1973, there was a step change in communication between the IRA leadership and the British government. The back-channel that hitherto had involved little more than the exchange of political thinking was used increasingly for negotiation on urgent issues including kidnappings, hunger strikes, and the legalization of Sinn Féin. Chapter Four examines the modes of reciprocal exchange and protocols for communication that developed over the course of 1974. It highlights the close involvement of the British Prime Minister and other government ministers in the exchanges and it examines the use of the back-channel to clarify the meaning of public statements. This series of exchanges in 1974 allowed both parties to test whether their interlocutors really had the authority to make commitments and the power to deliver on them. The exchanges contributed to the building of limited trust between the IRA leadership and the British government as each side learned that the other would stand by commitments, respect the integrity of protocols for communication, and not abuse contact for direct military or political advantage. This new communication infrastructure, reinforced by repeated interaction and exchanges, provided a strong foundation for the subsequent intensification and deepening of political engagement.

Fracking, fashion and the environmental activism of Vivienne Westwood

Vivienne Westwood frequently utilizes her iconic status to advocate for a variety of social, political and economic issues (Moir 2021). Since 2008, environmental politics, climate change and fracking policies have been the focus of her activism. Westwood regularly attends anti-fracking protests, such as in 2015, when she gained significant news attention for driving a tank across British Prime Minister David Cameron’s lawn. This article explores the possibilities of Westwood’s design activism within visual culture to communicate the grave environmental consequences of fracking and climate change. In addition to her political activities, Westwood has incorporated an environmental critique into her fashion collections, such as transforming her 2015 London Fashion Week performance into an anti-fracking protest. Westwood consequently draws upon her privileged status as a cultural icon to position her runway and subsequent media attention as a platform encouraging critical debate in regard to ethical fashion and environmental change.

2. Three waves of neoliberalism

‘Three waves of neoliberalism’ examines the three waves of neoliberalism, starting with the emergence of neoliberalism in the Anglosphere under the conservative leaderships of US President Ronald Reagan and British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher. Meanwhile, the second wave of neoliberalism became associated with a new kind of global economic and political cosmopolitanism called market globalism. Identifying themselves with a politically moderate position known as the Third Way, US President Bill Clinton and British Prime Minister Tony Blair embraced this neoliberal ideology. US President Barack Obama's presidency marked the rise of third-wave neoliberalism by refusing to impose restrictions on the monopolistic practices of emerging e-commerce firms.

Effects of rapid recruitment and dissemination on Covid-19 mortality: the RECOVERY trial

The RECOVERY trial is a large multi-armed, adaptive randomised controlled trial of treatments for Covid-19. It has rapidly recruited and demonstrated that hydroxychloroquine is ineffective in reducing mortality for hospitalised patients, whilst dexamethasone significantly reduces mortality among those patients using supplemental oxygen or on a ventilator. We estimate that the speed of recruitment and dissemination has probably decreased mortality in the UK by at least 200 hospitalised patients in the first month since the British Prime Minister announced the results. Despite its impressive speed, the trial only recruited about 10-15% of eligible patients, with recruitment rates ranging between 3% to 80% at participating hospitals. Had the trial recruited 50% of the eligible patients then our analysis suggests that more than 2,000 additional lives could have been saved. In a pandemic, rapid recruitment with high centre recruitment is absolutely essential to reduce deaths. Methods of improving site specific recruitment rates need investigating urgently.

Introduction

Paris was quiet on February 19, 1919. Abuzz for a month as the peacemakers bickered, cajoled, and negotiated the peace treaties that formally ended the Great War, the city finally rested as U.S. President Woodrow Wilson and British Prime Minister David Lloyd George took a brief leave to return home, leaving behind Georges Clemenceau, the French prime minister known to all as “the Tiger.”...