Why the Tories have more in common with the Romanians than they think
It's a sweet irony that Margaret Thatcher is the heroine both of some of those who wish to come here and many of those who oppose their doing so.In the summer of 1992, after two months teaching English...
View ArticleWhy the bridge scandal is so damaging to Chris Christie's presidential hopes
The New Jersey governor is widely tipped as a potential Republican nominee for the 2016 election. But as a recent scandal involving gridlock on a bridge shows, he's more like Richard Nixon than than...
View ArticleIsrael's Ariel Sharon dies at 85
The former Israeli prime minister is dead, eight years after a stroke which ended his political career.Ariel Sharon has died at the age of 85, it was announced today.Israel's president Shimon Peres...
View ArticleIn the debate about immigration, we must not forget the exploitation of...
Eva came from Hungary to London to work 21 hours a day as a nanny, but when she lost her job she had nothing. While we discuss the political issues of immigration, we can't forget the people who are...
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Hollande and the French kiss goodbye to era of private presidential affairs
When things are going well, the “private life” is deliberately on display for all to see. That is how the French presidency thrives.François Hollande joins a long tradition of French Fifth republic...
View ArticleThree reasons Egyptians should vote “no” in today's referendum
Egyptians are expected to vote “yes” in a referendum on their new constitution. This will prove a big mistake. For the third time in as many years, Egyptians are voting in a referendum on their...
View ArticleWhy, in 2014, are first ladies still expected to behave like 1950s housewives?
Open your mouth and identify yourself as a human being while daring to be married to a high-powered politician, and the media is unlikely to look kindly upon you.By now, you probably know the story:...
View ArticlePresident Hollande's approval rating among women is boosted by reports he's...
A poll reveals that Francois Hollande's popularity among French women has increased following news of his alleged affair with an actress. I had never imagined that France’s president, Francois...
View ArticleIf Chris Christie wants to be president, he has to shake off the stench of...
Chris Christie's presidential hopes have taken a hit, thanks to the "bridge" scandal. But if he learns the lesson that the American public has little tolerance for proto-Nixonion political thuggery,...
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The road to nowhere: the Syrian refugees left out in the cold by Europe
More than two million people have fled the civil war in Syria. Many of them are desperate to get into Europe – but no country wants them.One day at the end of October last year, Mohamad Hussain went to...
View ArticleSyria: evidence of "systematic killing" of 11,000 detainees
Top lawyers say they have evidence that the Syrian government is responsible for crimes against humanity, but will these latest findings influence tomorrow's peace talks?The Syrian government is...
View ArticlePeace will not be achieved in Syria without Iran
At Geneva this week, the government should push for the establishment of a Syria Contact Group involving both Saudi Arabia and Iran.This week the long-delayed Geneva II peace conference will take place...
View ArticleThe parrot who registered as a local candidate in Belarus, and other...
Yasha the parrot joins an elite menagerie of animals that have entered politics.An activist in Belarus has registered his pet parrot, Yasha, as a candidate in a local council election. The BBC reports...
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Before the First World War: what can 1914 tell us about 2014?
Old world decline, rogue empires, killing for God – looking at 1914, we can discover that there are many uncomfortable parallels with our own time.As we enter the centenary year of the outbreak of the...
View ArticleNow that the president has gone, will violence in the Central African...
Decades of strife have left the Central African Republic with a damaged infrastructure and a tense peace that seems like it could end at any moment. The resignation of Michel Djotodia as president of...
View ArticleSome stats for Davos: The richest 1 per cent own almost half the world's wealth
Global inequality in numbers.As the world’s wealthiest and most influential businessmen and politicians fly into Davos for the annual World Economic Forum, and book into hotels like the Belvedere Hotel...
View ArticleYou have to be rather fond of someone to visit them in dreary, shoeless...
This is the place to which the Beloved is committed.That’s that, then. I’ve booked a ticket to go to Gothenburg in February. The generosity of parents over Christmas has ensured that I can cover the...
View ArticleIn Egypt, a nation voted Yes to military rule and Yes to moving forwards
The plebiscite amounts to a tacit endorsement for the military-installed government that has launched a crackdown on Morsi and his Islamist party, the Muslim Brotherhood.Egypt’s referendum on a new...
View ArticleSouth Africa’s emerging new left: the birth of a new socialist party
The aim is to create a movement similar to the United Democratic Front that fought the apartheid government. Cautiously, but with plenty of revolutionary rhetoric, a new socialist party is being born...
View Article“I have been waiting for him to come home for 27 years, 3 months and 10 days”
For more than half of his time in prison, Marita Maharaj's husband Kris was on death row. His sentence was commuted in 2002, but he still faces life imprisonment.On 16 October 1986, I went into a...
View ArticleA third of school children aren't even learning the basics
250 million school-age children worldwide can't read, write or do a basic maths sum. 130 million of these children are enrolled in school. So what's going wrong?A third of primary-age children are...
View ArticleIn “Mitt”, Mitt Romney is both alien and somehow also beautifully, terribly...
A new film following Mitt Romney from his failed first presidential bid in 2007-8 to his doomed candidacy in 2012 may not be political dynamite, but it is an oddly compelling portrait of a very awkward...
View ArticleBritain’s last great diplomat: Michael Butler
Michael Butler was a man with a mission in life, not simply a diplomatic mission on his CV.It’s hard to list many great British diplomats: the most memorable figures have historically been colonial...
View ArticleRobert Gates: memoirs of the “Soldier’s Secretary”, an old-fashioned realist
The former US Secretary of Defense on what the president never knew.Duty: Memoirs of a Secretary at War Robert M GatesKnopf, 618pp, £25Remember the famous scene in Casablanca when Captain Renault...
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Dieudonné’s war on France: the Holocaust comedian who isn’t funny
Dieudonné is no Bernard Manning or Frankie Boyle, whose humour is purposelessly offensive. In recent years, he has set out on a political mission to provoke the French state and test the limits of...
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The radicalism of fools: the rise of the new anti-Semitism
No self-respecting person on the left should endorse anti-establishment positions that are in reality just cloaked anti-Semitism.Mixed signals: fans do the quenelle outside a Nantes venue where...
View ArticleWhy we must end the detention of female asylum seekers in the UK
We must believe these women when they tell us they would never have left their home, their family, their country, if they had a choice, and we must demonstrate this belief by telling our government...
View ArticleWhat use is Gross Domestic Happiness to Bhutan's 106,000 global refugees?
In Aberdeen, outside a takeaway called The Gurkha Kitchen, I met a Bhutanese refugee called Landless. Landless was eager to talk.In Aberdeen, a takeaway called The Gurkha Kitchen sells plump dumplings,...
View ArticleA new law in Afghanistan means men can attack their wives and daughters with...
The problem isn't just in Afghanistan. 30 per cent of woman suffer violence from an intimate partner, but globally laws do little to protect women at home.According to the World Health Organisation, 35...
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The loneliness of Vladimir Putin
He crushed his opposition and has nothing to show for it but a country that's falling apart.Vladimir Putin arrives for a speech at the congress of Russia's ruling party in Moscow in 2011. Photo:...
View ArticleCalm, classless, striving for beauty: Yes, Scandinavia really is all it's...
British commentators have been dismissing Scandinavian culture and politics using selective statistics and un-contextualised observations. But from smart young people to art and happiness: the...
View ArticleWhy the US should apologise for deaths in Iraq
A US apology will not bring back the thousands of dead Iraqis, but at least it will amount to an acceptance of moral responsibility.After the invasion of Iraq, the US electorate sent a clear message to...
View ArticleHow the west was lost: Frank Furedi’s First World War
The Great War’s greatest legacy is uncertainty and a never-ending search for meaning.First World War: Still No End in Sight Frank FurediBloomsbury, 288pp, £18.99A century ago, the First World War tore...
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We cannot end FGM in the UK without ending it in Africa
We won’t stand aside as this violence is inflicted on girls in the UK and around the world. Britain is now the world’s biggest supporter of activity to end female genital mutilation.Around the world,...
View ArticleWhy is the Canadian rock band Skinny Puppy invoicing the Pentagon for $666,000?
How would you react if you discovered your music was being used to aid interrogations?How would you react if you discovered your music was being used as an instrument of torture? I like to think that...
View ArticleAs the US turns against new sanctions on Iran, has the Israel lobby lost its...
The Aipac lobby group is famed for its ability to move bills, spike nominations and keep legislators in line – but is its influence waning?In House of Cards, the award-winning US television show...
View ArticleThree years on from the Arab spring, Egyptians hope another strongman can...
Were millions in the region wrong to believe they deserved better?While hundreds of thousands of Egyptians took to the streets in 2011 to protest against Hosni Mubarak’s thirty-year rule, I was...
View ArticleGender inequality is costing the global economy trillions of dollars a year
A UN report released today has found that progress made towards reducing poverty is at risk of being reversed because of widening inequality and a failure to strengthen women's rights.According to a...
View ArticleNegotiating a path to peace: from Geneva to Aleppo, via Moscow
Syrian peace talks are promising, but much will need to be agreed (and a few Gordian Knots sliced) before there can be a lasting peace.On the surface, little seems to have been achieved in talks on the...
View Article“Good” and “bad” war – and the struggle of memory against forgetting
The regime that Washington created in the South, the “good” Korea, was set up and run largely by those who had collaborated with Japan and America.Fifty years ago, E P Thompson’s The Making of the...
View ArticleBelgium extends its euthanasia laws to children
Belgium has lifted all age restrictions on euthanasia, despite concerns that the legislation has been rushed through.Yesterday, Belgian lawmakers voted 86-44 to extend the country’s euthanasia laws to...
View ArticleThe war on bread: how the Syrian regime is using starvation as a weapon
For Syrians, the war on bread began a long time ago. Long before the siege of Yarmouk, before last week’s abortive evacuation of Homs, before the war even began, the regime’s neoliberal economic...
View Article400 Nepalese construction workers have died since Qatar won the World Cup bid
Why are international sporting events so dangerous for construction workers?Around 400 Nepalese workers have died in construction sites across Qatar since the oil-rich Gulf state won the bid to host...
View ArticleUnderground epidemic: the tuberculosis crisis in South Africa's gold mines
Of the 2.3 million new cases of TB reported in Africa last year, almost a third were connected to mining in sub-Saharan Africa. According to research, one mine worker with active TB can spread the...
View ArticleTwo members of Pussy Riot arrested in Sochi
Nadia Tolokonnikova and Masha Alyokhina, who were released from prison less than two months ago, say they were arrested in Sochi with a group of activists and journalists.This article first appeared on...
View ArticleNo chickening out for activists subject to intimidation in Kiev
“I don’t hide behind the title ‘journalist’ any more,” says Tetiana Chornovol. “My investigative reporting is just one of the weapons I use in my battle against Yanukovych and his clan.”Tetiana...
View ArticleSailing for North Korea: A voyage to the town where no one knows the Beatles
The Chinese have always made the crossing: historically for trade, more recently for tourism. In May 2013, the North Korean city of Sinuiju opened up to westerners for the first time.The Friendship...
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Pussy Riot and the new age of dissident art
Neither of these two new books about the feminist art collective leave one optimistic about the immediate future of Russian politics, but they show the deep effect the saga has had.Kicking the Kremlin:...
View ArticleUkraine is at war, we're just not admitting it yet
Ukraine finds itself in an impossible clinch, where it is alternately patronised (“those heroic Ukrainians!”) and refused serious help to counter Russia’s bailouts. With people dying on the streets as...
View ArticleThe President of Kazakhstan suggests his country should be renamed
President Nazerbayev doesn't want to rule a "stan" any more. So he's suggesting it become Kazakh Yeli or Kazakhiya.What’s in a name? When it comes to geographical place names, quite a lot actually, as...
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