Have you ever found yourself recoiling at the current state of political discourse and commentary in the UK and the World? Increasingly Question Time and other mainstream political commentary shows are harder and harder to watch. They are often riddled with the very party political cliches, dogmas, dichotomies and one-upping they are supposed to fundamentally challenge and break down. 

To extend this point, just consider some of the slogans and argumentative devices we have been treated to by our political leaders in recent years. We’ve had Nigel Farage and his £350 million for the National Health Service, Theresa May’s Strong and Stable leadership and Boris Johnson’s endless pledges to Get Brexit Done. Recently, Prime Minister Rishi Sunak has created his own Johnson-esque slogan in Stop the Boats and Keir Starmer has launched tribal attack ads on Rishi Sunak’s crime record. No wonder it’s so hard to stay actively engaged. 

In sum, it seems as though mainstream UK political debate and commentary is losing it’s critical rigour and intellectual depth. There is little depth or discussion of the very moral convictions and principles at play behind the policies our politicians endorse or oppose. It is little surprise then that politicians come across as robotic and unauthentic, when we do not even know what they value or represent as people on a deeper level. 

If the UK is to have any level of sophisticated and rigorous political debate, we believe there needs to be more appreciation of the moral convictions and principles that underline our political beliefs and opinions. For example, are there any moral arguments that could support Sunak’s position on migration? For many (including us), the answer is no. However, it is useful to understand exactly why we intuitively recoil at anti-migrant rhetoric, and how far our support for migrants extends; perhaps we agree that everyone should be provided with a safe route to migrate, but do we agree on the exact nature of our obligations to migrants? Would a world without any restrictions on migration create practical issues? Is it natural to feel a stronger sense of attachment to fellow citizens than to foreigners? Or do our humanitarian duties to treat others with equal respect and dignity render these questions redundant? Questions such as these challenge our intuitions and encourage us to reassess our beliefs and values. This process substantiates our political and moral opinions, allowing us to engage with others in a more fruitful and tolerant way. 

This is where this blog enters. Our mission is to promote political and moral philosophy-based commentary on public policy issues in an accessible format. We want a greater understanding of the moral principles and convictions that inform our political beliefs and opinions. On a wider scope, we hope that this will promote a much healthier public discourse in which we can cut past party-political dogmas and cliches and discuss politics on a deeper level. Perhaps we will find that we agree with those who we have ridiculed in the past. Perhaps we will still disagree, but that we can at least understand the reasons for disagreement, allowing us to respect and learn from others rather than frothing at the mouth with rage.

Therefore, we will explore current salient issues in politics and current affairs from this perspective. We will also explore underdeveloped political issues and policies to give them the same consideration and exploration, such as vaping regulation and the unjustifiability of streaming site fees insofar as they restrict equal access to knowledge.

Mores’ mission can be summarised like this: 

1. We want to provide an alternative commentary on the development of UK and Global politics and policy that is based not on party political dogmas and cliches, but on moral and political philosophy.
2. We want to raise awareness of the political importance of our moral intuitions within politics and policy. Too often are morals dismissed and perceived as naïve within mainstream political commentary – this needs to change. 
3. We want to explore underdeveloped policy areas and issues using our approach. Too often are pressing issues and topics either dismissed out of hand or not explored fully, in favour of covering political psychodramas. 

This will all be conducted by a small tight-knit group of Masters graduates in Political and Legal Theory from the University of Warwick and Universitat Pompeu Fabra in Barcelona. We all come from a variety of social, racial, religious and national backgrounds despite our academic similarities, and we hope this will enhance our unique analysis and perspective. 

We look forward to having you with us on this journey.