By David Binder The issue of economic inequality has once again been thrust into the spotlight by French economist Thomas Picketty’s new book ‘Capital in the Twenty-First century.’ Whilst his research has been discussed at great length elsewhere (the Washington Centre for Equitable Growth has produced a useful summary of ...
By Pieter Cranenbroek Watching David Cameron in Europe is a bit like watching a kid make a stain on his shirt and rub it, making it bigger and bigger. The British prime minister has been rubbing his European leaders up the wrong way for a while, but his diplomacy has ...
By Oliver Ward The Chinese built their High Speed Rail (HSR) in less than two years. In Britain we have been debating the subject for two years, members of all political parties have been stroking their chins in backrooms and passing memos between themselves but its expected completion date is ...
By Valentina Magri European elections are coming and fear is growing. The terror is called UKIP (UK Independence Party). The party who wants Britain exit from the EU and tougher immigration laws may gain 25-35 per cent of votes, according to the latest polls, pushing PM Cameron’s Conservatives in third ...
By Andy Irwin On their own, opinion polls offer little more than a fleeting glimpse of a point in time, a snapshot of the immediate thinking of a sample of the electorate – they are dated before the ink is dry. Different polls have their own biases depending on the ...
By Rob Telford, Green councillor for Ashley ward, Bristol The great democratic hope for General Election 2015 For decades, the UK has essentially been a two-party system, with third parties (whether Liberal/SDP/Lib Dem, SNP/Plaid, Green, BNP or UKIP) not being able to gain enough votes to overhaul the two largest ...
By Pieter Cranenbroek – International Politics Blogger The European elections won’t be held for another two months but the four biggest political parties in Britain are already warming up to it. After Nick Clegg challenged Nigel Farage to an old-fashioned duel, Ed Miliband and David Cameron have been dragged into the ...
By Pieter Cranenbroek, International Politics Blogger Margaret Thatcher may be dead but her legacy lives on. Good for her, bad for us. When she rose to power 35 years ago she was determined to reverse “the corrosive and corrupting effects of socialism”. However, it has become abundantly clear that her policies ...
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 ...