Politics

  By Luca Foschi You do not fix history with a drone. What we are witnessing today in Iraq is the slow collapse of a century-long geopolitical partition drawn up in a secret document by United Kingdom and France, in one of their last acts as imperial powers. In May 1916 diplomats Mark Sykes and François Gorges Picot signed an agreement that reshaped the Near East, previously ruled by the Ottoman Empire who were siding with Austria-Hungary and Germany during the First...

By Guy Dorrell @GuyDorrellEsq In March this year, the nation lost an iconic figure from both parliament and the wider political and protest scene with the death of Tony Benn. Once billed as the most dangerous man in Britain, he would later be feted as a national treasure. The son of a Liberal MP and later hereditary peer, Anthony Wedgewood Benn would turn his back on the system that educated him and renounce the peerage that would eventually fall to...

By Rachel Wilson Political Reporter The current cuts to the public sector look set to impact on women the hardest. Women make up the majority of public sector workers and cuts to the sector has pushed women’s unemployment up over the past few years. Women make up 65% of the public sector workforce in the UK and the latest figures from the Office for Budget Responsibility estimate that 929,000 jobs will be lost in the public sector by 2018. Over...

By Valentina Magri The decision of the European Council to propose Jean-Claude Juncker as the next President of the European Commission was “one step closer to quitting Europe” for Britain. The move made David Cameron feel very angry. Indeed, the PM has promised a referendum in 2017 over EU membership if the Conservative party win the 2015 general election. Opinion polls show that Brits are split on the issue. But what would be the economic consequences of Brexit? The five economic consequences...

By Andy Irwin Last weekend’s anti-austerity march in central London organised by The People’s Assembly Against Austerity highlighted the anger of thousands and a lack of leadership on Britain’s disparate left wing. If you were one of the estimated 50,000 people who marched peacefully through London or simply attended the demonstration at Parliament Square last weekend you may be somewhat surprised to see the ensuing lack of coverage of the anti-austerity event organised by the relatively new pressure group ‘The...

By Deiniol Jones Russian Prime Minister Medvedev warned recently of the advent of a new Cold War. His boss, Vladimir Putin, contradicted him. It’s a confusing situation, and the confusion is only compounded when HRH Charles Prince of Wales pops up to make a revealing comment, comparing Vladimir Putin to Hitler. Does history repeat itself in precisely the same way? Is Putin a Hitler, a Stalin or just...well, just a Vladimir Putin? Is it possible to abandon historical analogies and...

By Guy Dorrell @GuyDorrellEsq Straight out of university, my first career move was to become an Army office. The year-long course at the Royal Military Academy Sandhurst – where William and Harry attended – was designed to breed the future leaders of the British Army. My first close friend in my platoon was from an army family. He wanted to, and almost certainly would, follow his father’s footsteps and go into the same regiment, doing the same role. His father was...

By Tomas McGoldrick Northern Ireland has often been accused of being behind the times, but in one area we seem to be ahead of the curve. The recent European elections have seen a surge in support for anti-immigrant, xenophobic parties. In Britain UKIP dominated the headlines by topping the poll, yet in Northern Ireland they managed only 3.9 per cent of first preference votes. One of the reasons why they may have failed to make much inroad in Northern Ireland...

By Guy Dorrell @GuyDorrellEsq With one outburst, Tracey Emin unwittingly created a new art movement. “Your paintings are stuck, you are stuck! Stuck! Stuck! Stuck!” criticised her at-the-time boyfriend, Billy Childish’s view on how art should be. Emin’s art had become about the conceptual; My Bed and Everyone I Have Ever Slept With 1963-1995 being her two most notorious pieces. Childish however, had less interest in conceptualism than in traditional figurative painting, essentially to make art imitate life. When life...