Luddite is wont to say that New Labour were a 'socialist' government. Perhaps he could pick up Honderich's book 'Conservatism' and find a rather damning indictment of NuLabour for its conservatism? But I fear a proponent of Tea Party politics will not want to trouble himself with anything beyond Daily Express level debate. I hope you will prove me wrong Luddite.

I don't think fairness is the principle of humanity. Thus those who seek fairness can really only ever be disciples of humanity and let's face it - nobody's perfect. I dare say people who kid themselves that fairness is a principle should be careful -lest they end up disciples of some pretentious and/ or preposterous idea that to any real intent, extent or good purpose doesn't exist at all, in practice.

Being authentic is very important I think when it comes to freedom of expression. And the best form of authentic protest citizens already enjoy is the capacity and capability of raising any concerns they have about things affecting them with their elected M.P.. Believe me going to see one's M.P is a sort of test in itself in my experience, though naturally as a common citizen one may struggle to find the words to best describe..it's just not good enough yet, in my view.

Suffice it to hereby say I think we'd all be much better off if we had a proper Parliamentary form to fill in when we make use of our M.P.'s office - by which we can hold each other to account when necessary and appropriate. This should help us avoid unnecessary conflicts.

Prof. Honderich's central thesis seems to be that the 'Principal of Humanity' must be so affronted by the manifest unfairness of the current Tory public spending cuts that wider society will inevitably be driven (if not persuaded) to revolt. This story is surely analogous to the familiar Marxist line which held that human nature would be so affronted by the alienation (and unfairness) inherent in industrial production that it, too, would inevitably revolt.
Several observations follow: Marx & Engels believed the revolution would begin in Britain as the most heavily industrialised country of the time. Why were they wrong? Are the British just too apathetic, too cynical, too oppressed? Or was it that Marx & Engels didn't fully understand the British psyche? Where revolution did happen - in Russia - did it ultimately produce the desired results or was it not quickly corrupted?
I agree that we might sometimes look enviously at the French or Greeks for their taking to the streets in response to perceived unfairnesses. But I personally quickly recoil from the sight of not-at-all hard-done-by students burning tyres and hurling half-bricks in the streets. Any protest that is to be effective needs to be cleverer and far less confrontational than this.
There seems to be no lacking in general British recognition of the current unfairness - even amongst the tabloid press. The bankers have lost the money and so the rules of the game are being altered to withdraw the £200 as we pass 'Go' and abolish the 'Community Chest'.
So how might we seek to alter the rules of the game in order to emphasise the 'Principal of Humanity' or something like it?
An earlier contributor quoted Marx's famous aphorism " . . . the point, however, is to change it". But surely the point is not merely to change it but to change it for the better.

Prof H persuades me, and congratulations to Cassandra and Sean.

The problem partly is, surely, that the turkeys vote for christmas partly because the inhuman economic ideas of neoliberalism have become so 'common-sense' that people find them natural. Matthew Davies above, for example, thinks it's an adequate insult to call Prof H "...a philosopher, obviously oblivious to modern economics."
There is no shortage of good economic ideas and proposals which espouse fairness. There's a shortage of leaderships and popular understanding and support. But it does seem to me that the present 'coalition' may just antagonise enough of the people to trigger a change. The multiple attacks on housing (it's not just the capping of HB) are so geographically focused that a lot of us just might refuse to bear it.

@Lou: I for one would like the Conservatives to go further with their cuts. For a start off all Politics, Philosophy, English, and History departments will no longer receive any government funding. All the bookworms that are leeching off taxpayer's money will probably be out of a job. Currently the universities are being subsidized by the wages of poorer people.

Look at this guy Ted Honderich. He's getting 80,000 quid a year? And what is doing in this article? He is trying to justify his job. All he is doing is justifying his job and his mates' jobs.

He says, "Oh look there is someone else in charge of a shampoo company getting ten times more than poor me. It isn't fair. I'm a really well respected philosopher with a PHD and a emeritus professor with wow the University of London ... and he's only a shampoo salesman. It's not fair.

Let me prove to you that the cuts aren't fair by quoting someone else. But first of all I'll do really that wanky academic thingy and talk about John Stuart Mill.
See I've proved it. The cuts aren't fair and my job should be safe"

Hurray for Teddy Bear. He's a good egg. And look he's proposing a march. Good idea. Lets do some protesting. Better be peaceful.

Cardigans Ready

Re Lou's comments, to quote his odious self...

" I'm a complete left wing airhead that thinks Lily Savage is funny."

Never has someone written something so accurate and precise.

I struggling to stand it anymore, at the moment.

I feel as i I want get out, anywhere, but bloody where. Jesus.

@Mr. Divine

I think you've more than proved Jamie Von's point. Congratulations.

But perhaps it's time to take your pseudo-intellectual's troll routine somewhere else pumpkin. You're embarrassing yourself.

Please no MORE BLOODY PROTEST SOLUTIONS.

Is that all Ted can come up with???

academics, they are such wankers

Nice one Mr. Divine. Those dickheads got what was coming to them. You should have picked up your dump and flung it at them.

@Lou/Mr. Temporal: Is that chocolate on your face?

Honderich makes a good case for the Principle of Humanity as a principle for evaluating the state of our society. The narrow minded and vicious self-interest of most Tory thinking has been amply demonstrated since the Election, not least in their destructive proposals for Higher Education.

Exclusive: philosopher Ted Honderich calls for a general strike and mass disobedience to protest against a government of "petty careerists and PR men". Great!! let's all start our own tea party movement.

What's the point of philosophy?
Philosophy only generates more questions and has never solved anything. One question only brings another question and then you go deeper and that brings you to the beginning, so what is the point of philosophy?

I support Ted Honderich's call for action but feel somewhat restricted in what I can do. As a retired academic my going on strike would have no effect on anyone, so my role must be - like his - to raise awareness. We need what Amartya Sen calls "informed agitation". I was mildly surprised to see no reference to Sen, an economist, a Nobel laureate and the most persuasive voice for fairness I know. Read him to get better informed and then agitate.

Lou, you're a complete twathead. Fancy eating that muck. You should go and troll that stuff somewhere else. Go on piss off to another site, we don't want to see that smeared all over your face.

It isn't chocolate you know?

Excellent article!

The source of most difficulties. it seems to me. lies in the ever-widening gap between rich and poor. Blair, who was in many ways to the right of Margaret Thatcher, did nothing about that.

The problem is that nobody seems to know quite what to do about it, I don't suppose that civil disobedience would solve it any more than any other proposed solution.

The prospect that strikes me with horror is that there might develop the extreme sort of polarisation that has engulfed the USA. The utterly crazy Tea Party movement reminds me of the dying days of the Roman Empire. Thank heavens I live in Europe.

That's right Lou/Mr. Temp, you go and take your troll like features and fake chocolate and head off to another site. Off you go my pet pumpkins. Troll off Lou, you smeared troller. And take your unfair attitude towards other members of our valued blogsphere with you.

Mr. Divine - you might note the article is critical of John Stuart Mill and that a general strike, which Honderich calls for, is not merely protest but collective action. Also, vandalism is precisely what the govt is planning for universities, that is 'senseless destruction' given that their policies will devastate many valuable institutions, although to be fair its not totally senseless as it has the side benefit of consolidating their class power.

Academics are like the monks in Hesse's Glass Bead Game. Their productions are beautiful but ultimately have no basis for application in the real world. "Fairness" is a tortured effort to correct the natural inequalities of life.

Ted Honderich argues well (as usual) and his heart is in the right place (apparently) but his conclusion here is wrong. The coalition government shares his concern for fairness and seeks to minimize the pain of its cuts but faces its own political limits. The fact is that the power of money has us all - wage slaves, shareholders, and governments alike - by the balls. This is the logic of capital, as Karl Marx confusedly sensed in his wordy ramblings on the subject. The global flow of quantified symbols of value (money) will continue to reward its sharpest servants - the Wall Street masters of the universe and so on - until the machines take over. Then we'd better be sure we've programmed the machines properly. Until then, the best that people like Ted and David and Nick can do is to persuade the rich to work for the wider good. Contra Ted, I believe that classic liberalism is now bankrupt. My attempt to rescue the world from this predicament is enshrined in my new book "G.O.D. Is Great" (Amazon), where the global organization (of G20, Wall Street, and so on) is Globorg, Globorg is GO, GO dominion is GOD, and GOD is great! Ted probably thinks GOD is a load of bollocks, but that's my claim and I'm sticking to it.

Ted Peters writes,' "Fairness" is a tortured effort to correct the natural inequalities of life.'

It would be helpful to understand what you mean if you could describe what is a 'natural' inequality and what is unnatural.

Mr.Divine:
Thanks for confirming that you are a philistine , ignorant idiot.
This outburst of yours betrayed you.Why don't you go and troll somewhere else if this stuff is too intellectual for you, or too left wing or too European?
I agree with the tenets of the article.
Where are the protests at the biggest attack on the welfare state ever? where are the students protests at the rising student fees?
Where are the strikes against unemployement and for a living wage?
And if not now, when?
What I fear is that the government, helped by the Murdoch press has actually persuaded the people that there is, truly no alternative. or is it apathy, pathetic submission to what our betters have decided is good for us? After all the British people are subjects, not citizens, and you still have to curtsy when you meet that woman. That must have some impact on the psyche of a nation.
No such resignation from the French, the Greeks and the rest of the Europeans.They think, as citizens should, that they own the State, that the State is there to serve them, not to impose its own rules without having first got the approval of the people.
And the only way to express your disapproval in a Modern Democracy is protest and strikes. Without them, we are back to the days of tyranny. Without exercising our right to protest, we are nothing but a mass of slaves working for their masters, the big Corporations, the government being their puppets, doing their bidding.

Torys are south-east England concerntrated. Why? Because they are the left-over core of British Empire administrative past dark arts of colonialism, in quite a proportion of the total influence. And carries on these days instinctively in being total arses in governmentally administrating the regions of GB & NI, when they get the chance.

Send them back to India, I say.