Politics

By Bill Lytton "A biased, partisan depiction of the only party that Believes in Britain." Those are the words - and remember them - of Nigel Farage describing Channel 4's "docu-drama": 'Ukip: the First 100 Days'. Fictionalised satire, or speculative fiction; this is Chris Atkin's dystopian sketch of a United Kingdom where the Farage party have taken the country by means of unfathomable political landslide. Already, this sordid act of biased fictional portrayal has garnered more than a thousand complaints...

By David Binder Imagine this, a Western government in the name of wanting to make sure we’re not plotting a terrorist atrocity, or ‘having our best interests at heart’ by ensuring we’re adhering to ‘British values’ introduces legislation to monitor our private lives through our TV’s, mobile devices, tablets and so on by actually listening to our conversations, recording our keystrokes and listening into our phone calls. Worse still, imagine the Government can identify who is typing the anti-government message,...

By Laura Griffiths The potent austerity measures that Southern Europe has had to contend with as a result of the Eurozone crisis were never going to be welcomed with open arms. With the number of people protesting in the hundreds of thousands and culminating in violence since 2010, it was inevitable that the masses would be listened to by new emerging political parties or young coalitions. Disenchantment in politicians and a tough economic situation on a national level has always resulted...

By Joe Mellor, Deputy Editor Mexican drug cartels, terrorist organisations and now dodgy party donors. It’s a wonder HSBC had time to sell PPI insurance to us mere mortals, but they did…bless them. Hours before today’s PMQs there were revelations about political benefactors (mainly Tories), peers and a high profile MP who held accounts in Switzerland with HSBC. It appears the world’s local bank – for the super-rich – is an office in Zurich. This was Ed’s chance to finally...

By June Eric Udorie This week, the Labour Party graced us with their newest campaign to attract female voters – a hot pink minibus with the words “Woman to Woman” written across it. Harriet Harman, the deputy leader of the Labour Party who is fronting the campaign said, “We don’t want women to give up on politics. If you look at the figures, the disaffection that there is with politics is even more pronounced among women”. I’m all for women...

By Tom Jones The South China Sea dispute over the Senkaku/Diaoyu islands has again escalated, with IHS Jane’s reporting that China is building a large scale military heliport 300 KM from the islands. Within this range, Chinese helicopter forces would be able to aid forces active in any potential conflict over the islands. The distance won’t allow the helicopters to offer any air cover for the islands, but it will allow helicopter to run supplies and troops from a reliable...

By Simon Bartram Tony Blair was arguably one of the boldest and most talented politicians of the late 20th and early 21st century. Domestically he is widely credited with delivering vast swathes of progressive legislation across the country, introducing the minimum wage, allowing civil partnerships, and strengthening employee rights. Britain's social values radically changed during his time in office - the values of the older generation were swept away and a new morality gained greater acceptance. Whether legislation was the...

Chatham House’s latest report indicates that the British public believe that Britain’s relationship with the EU is now more valuable than its relationship with the United States, and that marginally more people would vote to remain in the EU than leave it in the event of a referendum on Britain’s membership. Last week the international affairs think tank Chatham House released the fourth edition of its ‘Internationalism or Isolationism?’ opinion survey in collaboration with the pollster YouGov. The survey canvasses...

By Joe Mellor, Deputy Editor While watching PMQs last week, I was so frustrated with Miliband’s refusal to answer whether he had said he was “weaponising the NHS,” I stuck two pencils in my nose and prepared to head-butt the desk, but at the last minute I thought, “They are not worth it” Well today Miliband used all his questions to ask the PM about his tax cuts to hedge funds. The PM failed to answer the question once. I...