Politics

By Pieter Cranenbroek – International Politics Blogger On New Year’s Eve, French President François Hollande announced a series of liberal reforms that meant a move away from socialist thinking. Although the socialist president’s alleged liaison with an actress may have overshadowed his astonishing flirt with liberalism, he would do well to quickly re-join his ideological family. It is Hollande’s profound conviction that France needs to strengthen its economy to keep its influence, but switching to a liberal economic policy will help...

By Joe Mellor, In house Reporter  “I am not a saint, unless you think of a saint as a sinner who keeps on trying.” - Nelson Mandela. When the world revisited the great man’s quotes after his death, this one seemed to resonate with a lot of people. Mandela’s words seems pertinent in light of French President Francois Hollande’s alleged sexual antics. However, the French seem to have a different approach when it comes to politicians sinning, especially of the...

Freedom of Information request reveals the cost of failed Boris Island plans.  Despite extensive publicity and substantial resources, Boris Johnson’s grandiose hub island airport failed to land a spot on the Airports Commission’s shortlist for expanding UK airport capacity. The three options earmarked for further consideration included adding a third runway at Heathrow, lengthening an existing runway at Heathrow and a new runway at Gatwick. The Airports Commission stopped short at condemning the ambitious, expensive idea of building an airport...

A No Strings Puppet Workshop For Children From Syria By Rosie Waller, No Strings International  No Strings International makes puppet films that bring to life crucial messages for children in disasters, poverty and war around the world, with their current focus on Syria. Here, Rosie Waller, one of the UK team based in Newcastle-upon-Tyne, recalls a recent No Strings workshop on the Syrian border for adults tasked with supporting the conflict’s emotional impact on children One man’s son is terrified of...

By Jim Colella, freelance journalist and blogger, resident in Turkey since 2005  The epic corruption scandal currently gripping Turkey, not to mention international headlines, is nothing less than the collapse of the entire set on a theatre stage. With that elaborately painted background suddenly gone, so too goes the context for the actors occupying the stage. The illusion is shattered, and in Turkey’s present dire case, the notion of a functioning democracy with rule of law has all but disappeared....

By Tomás McGoldrick, Ireland Correspondent Northern Irish talks - Ulster says No The failure of  Northern Irish parties to reach agreement on Richard Haass’s proposals is hardly surprising. Trying to resolve the issues of parades, flags and events of the past in six months was simply too much to ask for the US diplomat considering the roots of these disagreements go back to the Ulster Plantations of the seventeenth century. Unionists were not willing to accept a code of conduct for...

By Jack Peat, Editor of The London Economic  Al Arish Road winds along North Africa’s north coast from Cairo, the largest city in the Middle-East and the nucleus of the Arab Spring. From Tahrir Square it’s a five hour drive to the Israeli border, passing through Arish, the capital of North Sinai and arriving at the gates of Palestine and into one of the most volatile regions in the world. Israel lies to the South East and Jerusalem, Hebron and...

By Luca Foschi The bus I am riding in has come from Jerusalem, the occupied capital. It stops in front of Shuhada Street, where a rain of stones are lobbed towards the check point which has separated Hebron into two sections from 1997: H1, under the rule of the Palestinian Authority of Ramallah, and H2, controlled by Israel. 150,000 Palestinians live in H1. In H2 there are 60,000 Palestinians, a small mass trapped by the Oslo ‘93 agreements within the...

What’s right with the left, is what’s left of the right, right?   By Joe Mellor, In house Reporter  When I was a child growing up watching political programmes on a Sunday morning (I know, I should have got out more) I believed that Labour and Tory politicians would not talk, let alone socialise together outside of work. I imagined Neil Kinnock would elbow drop Nigel Lawson in the cloisters of the Houses of Parliament, after the Chancellor’s autumn statement....