Politics

It was Frank Zappa who described politics as 'the entertainment division of the military-industrial complex.' I mention that wonderfully cynical observation by the late musician as if there was ever a time for cynicism, we're living in it. Cynics aren't the same as pessimists or satirists. A pessimist looks at the world, sees it is wrong, and hides. A satirist looks at the world, sees it is wrong, and exaggerates its flaws. A cynic however looks at the world, sees...

Brexit may not have happened if Britons were brighter because not enough people grew up with access to higher education, according to new research. With education the predominant factor dividing those who voted Remain or Leave, researchers from the University of Leicester reckon greater access to higher education may have reversed the result of the 2016 referendum. The paper, published in the journal World Development, suggests that greater access to higher and further education can produce different political outcomes. They...

Older people who voted for Brexit have ‘comprehensively shafted the young’. That’s the view of Sir Vince Cable, writing for the Mail on Sunday this weekend. He accuses over-65s of being ‘self-declared martyrs’ who claim leaving the EU is worth the cost. ‘The old have comprehensively shafted the young'... 'And the old have had the last word about Brexit, imposing a world view coloured by nostalgia for an imperial past on a younger generation much more comfortable with modern Europe.’...

There is one great truth that ties all revolutions in common and that is they never burst out in surprise. History, or at least when current events have been aged in the cask long enough to be classified as history, always has shown that there were warning signs, hints, foreshadowing adeptly revealed yet not immediately obvious. It is as though the story of humanity is being written by a truly cunning mystery novelist, thus casting God as the supreme meld...

Donald Trump's pledge to build a wall across the US/ Mexican border may be deemed unconstitutional because it would require federal troops to be billeted on the borders of southern US states. The wall was a big part of the President's election pledge and according to a recent leaked transcript he and the Mexican president have already been immersed in dialogue over how to construct the vast infrastructural project. Last week the House approved $1.6 billion to fund the first instalment...

Analysis of the latest GP Patient Survey for England reveals a marked worsening of access to GP surgeries over the past five years, largely as a result of sustained Tory underfunding of primary care services. Jonathan Ashworth, Labour’s Shadow Health Secretary, has slammed Theresa May’s record on General Practice and pledged to ensure GPs are given the resources they need. Millions of patients are finding it significantly more difficult to contact their GP surgery over the phone compared with five...

Tony Blair's hopes of creating a new centrist political party lie in tatters after key donors abandoned the cause. With an increasing amount of MPs feeling alienated by their respective parties and a lack of support for pro-Remain policies the time seemed ripe for the former New Labour leader to launch an alternative party. Emmanuel Macron's success in France also seemed to add credence to the notion that new progressive parties could succeed elsewhere in Europe, but as far as...

This was the hilarious moment a Labour party activist was photobombed by ex-PM David Cameron while taking a selfie at a posh music festival. Town councillor Vanessa Price, 47, snapped the selfie with husband Steve while at the upmarket Wilderness festival close to the former Tory MP's Cotswold home. But when she looked back at the photograph she was horrified to discover the glum face of the Eton-educated politician glaring at her from the crowd of excited revellers. Cameron, dressed...

Right to Buy, the policy no one wants to talk about, is decimating local councils’ housing stock and costing us all dearly in state subsidy. In London alone, this amounts to £104,900 per discount. The Grenfell Tower fire has justly led to widespread debate about the state of social housing in 21st century Britain. However, the aspect no one seems to want to talk about is the devastating impact the right to buy policy (introduced by PM Margaret Thatcher as...