Book Review: 'Banana Republic UK?' By Sam Buckley

• Banana Republic UK? By Sam Buckley - £5.80 (available on www.amazon.co.uk)
• Paperback: 174 pages
• Publisher: Createspace (25 Aug 2011)
• ISBN-10: 146628112X
• ISBN-13: 978-1466281127

Sam Buckley's book 'Banana Republic UK?' is a survey of vote-rigging, electoral fraud and error in British and Scottish elections since 2001. He concludes that a combination of practices in the electoral system have allowed for significant manipulation or error to take place, disenfranchising voters. “While we tolerate elections where votes are stolen, postmen robbed of ballot envelopes, voters pressured or threatened, where counts are impossible to verify, where ballot boxes are brought in with the seals hanging open, where non-existent people vote in their hundreds, where only the wealthy or the party machines can hope to bring election petitions and where thousands of ballots emerge from boxes that only hundreds were counted going into we are a servile people and our freedom hangs in the balance.” pg 163

Can Capitalism Spend its way out of the Crisis?

The ideas of John Maynard Keynes and his followers reflect the main discussion within the left; whether capitalism can be reformed and operate in the interests of the whole of society, or whether it must be completely removed and replaced by an alternative system. Keynes himself made it clear his theories were aimed at preserving society against the danger a prolonged slump could pose to 'democratic values and institutions'. In effect his ideas were a retreat by capitalist economics, one which rejected the fantasies that have been revived with a vengeance in the neo-liberal period, that markets are 'in the long run' perfectible, that over time demand will always match supply and so on.

Origins of the Eurozone Crisis

The rivalry between imperialist powers dividing the surface of the earth between their various economic interests, led to open conflict between 1914 and 1918. This reflected the limits of capitalist development at that time, where the technology, technique and organisation could no longer guarantee a sufficient market within the borders of a single nation-state.

Russia and Christianity

Christianity was adopted by the medieval state of Kiev in 988, and this is often regarded as the founding event of Russian Orthodox Church. Initially, the Russian church was subordinated to the Patriarchate of Constantinople, the eastern branch of the Christian religion, as opposed to the western branch which was based in Rome. However, in 1448, the Russian church declared itself independent in the context of a rapidly declining Byzantine empire, Constantinople being taken over by the Ottoman Turks – Muslims – five years later. From this point on, the Russian Orthodox Church, now headquartered in Moscow, represented the biggest organization of Eastern Christianity.

Pussy Riot: 'Punk Prayer: Mother of God, Rid Us of Putin'

On February 21st 2012, five members of the Russian punk-rock collective Pussy Riot staged an impromptu demonstration at the altar of the Cathedral of Christ the Saviour in Moscow. Wearing brightly-coloured balaclavas, they bowed to the ground and crossed themselves in front of the altar and began to utter the words 'Mother of God, rid us of Putin'. They were immediately dragged away by the church's security guards and placed under arrest. Supporters filming the action subsequently blended their footage of this incident with that of an action performed at a different Moscow Cathedral, the Epiphany Cathedral at Yelokhovo two days previously. On this occasion, the group brought microphones and guitars into the building and briefly mimed a rock performance at a time when the church was not being used for a service. They were quickly expelled from the building.