Politics

Today's vlog will be about two new and complementary groups in Spanish politics, the Union, Progress, and Democracy grouping and the Ciutadans or Citizens party. In this edition of this vlog, I'll be analysing who these are, how they came about, the key personalities within these groups, the differences between these groupings, and the effect they will have on Spanish politics, both at a national and regional level. 

New research has revealed three-quarters of people aged over 60 believe they are "unseen and unheard" by the major political parties in a damaging blow to all concerned in the upcoming General Election. The report, released by Churchill Retirement Living, found just eight per cent of the 1,000 respondents are happy with how the government is treating our older generation and trust in politicians is slipping to an all-time low. More than half of respondents describe themselves as ‘frustrated’ about how they...

By Dr Katy Shaw  The Battle of Orgreave was one of the most violent and iconic moments of the 1984-5 UK miners’ strike. On 18 June 1984, a sunny summer’s day in Yorkshire, around 4000 miners clashed with around 8000 police outside a British Steel coking plant. Official police video accounts of the day show miners being directed into a field on site, before a violent confrontation ensued. Images of police officers on horse-back attacking miners on foot have since...

By Dr Katy Shaw This week marks the 30th anniversary of the end of the 1984-5 UK miner's strike. The strike was the defining industrial conflict of the post-war years in the UK. It began as a dual battle of revenge and replication as both factions, fueled by memories of their 1972/4 struggles, sought to rectify or revive past results. The ascension to power of the Left in the NUM signalled by the election of National Union of Miners (NUM)...

By Michael Duffy In the aftermath of the unveiling of Islamic State (IS) spokesman and executioner dubbed ‘Jihadi John’ as Kuwaiti-born Londoner Mohammed Emwazi, it became apparent that he had been on the radar of the intelligence services for some time, and that harassment by these services could have fuelled his descent into extremism. The man in question whom made these allegations is Asim Qureshi, a research director at CAGE an independent advocacy organisation which focuses on the war on...

By Joe Mellor, Deputy Editor Ed was dashing, daring and decisive, I expected him to pull his face mask off and reveal his brother. But no, this was all Ed, he reminded me of (if you are not a Robert Zemeckis fan, see you in the next paragraph/article) George McFly in Back to the Future, who somehow manages to turn from weakling to hero, knocking out his bullying nemesis Biff Tannen. Today, Miliband used every question to get the PM...

By Jonathan Hatchman Since its launch back in 2010 the photo-sharing social network Instagram has increasingly become a hub for users to share streams of food related posts, for better or for worse, sparking plenty of debate both in favour and against the culinary takeover. It’s clear to see that the app has become a utopia for “foodies” and hipsters from across the globe to show off their eating habits for the whole World to see, with a stream that hosts millions...

By Siobhan Weare, Expert on domestic violence from Lancaster University’s Law School Measures to protect victims of domestic abuse have featured prominently in the news recently, and any steps taken to address the issue and offer increased legal protection for victims are welcome. But, there still needs to be improvements in both the police and the criminal justice system’s responses to domestic abuse and increased investment in the support services which are so valuable to victims. A recent report by...

By Oliver Ward Since Kim Jong-un came to power in the final days of 2011 he hasn´t left North Korea, however there are strong indications he may be preparing to leave the peninsula at the start of May. Russian Foreign Minister, Sergey Lavrov has suggested there are "positive signs" that he will attend a ceremony in Russia commemorating the end of WWII  on May 8th. This is the latest in a string of moves dubbed "Putin´s Pivot" which has seen...