OH HAPPY day. The Italian election result is a triumph for democracy. “No pope, no government, no police chief,” went a viral tweet on Tuesday, hailing the arrival in Rome of “punk politics”. The outcome is an
Published28 Feb, 201303:34am
North Korea has set off a third nuclear test explosion. It has done so in defiance of the UN, America, Japan and even, reportedly, its sponsor, China. It has said to hell with everyone, in a brutal comment on western economic sanctions.
Published14 Feb, 201301:11am
LONDON: The greatest threat to world peace is not from nuclear weapons and their possible proliferation. It is from drones and their certain proliferation. Nuclear bombs are useless weapons, playthings for the powerful.
Published12 Jan, 201302:14am
ANY fool can knock a coalition. So it proved on Tuesday. Broken, lamentable, single-bedded, farcical, split, doomed, were among the responses to the “mid-term report” from the David Cameron-Nick Clegg coalition on Monday. What a shower they apparently wer
Published09 Jan, 201307:19pm
LONDON: Communal rioting in two cities. Bricks and bottles thrown and civic buildings wrecked. Flags torn down and 15 police injured. Local politicians forced to go into hiding. It happens all over the world, but this week it happened
Published08 Dec, 201201:17am
LONDON: The response to the Leveson inquiry, like the inquiry itself, is plagued by confusion. It was set up in emotional response to crimes, mostly of intrusion and libel, committed by journalists. Blanket coverage, in
Published02 Dec, 201203:06am
LONDON: Politics has never been so fascinating. It drips from the ceiling. It oozes up through the floor. It reeks across the internet. Reading politics, being informed about it, participating in it, should be the compulsory national service of the 21st-c
Published10 Nov, 201201:12am
SIT back, relax and enjoy it. The cost is minimal and the show will be good. That is what monarchy is about, a really good show. To will a British republic on the day of the Queen’s diamond jubilee is like
Published01 Jun, 201209:01pm
I FIRST noticed it in a restaurant. The place was strangely quiet, and at one table a group seemed deep in prayer. Their heads were bowed, their eyes hooded and their hands in their laps. I then realised that every one, young and old, was gazing at a hand
Published27 Apr, 201209:25pm
I WRITE from America, where those who care about Europe ask one question only. What is going on? What is this ‘euro crisis’ that never seems to end? What has happened to Greece, Portugal, Italy, Spain, Holland and now France? Have we all gone insane?
Published26 Apr, 201212:00am
ON Monday, the BBC Panorama programme substantiated an extraordinary allegation that suggested how far the war on terror has descended into legal abyss. The claim was that MI6, the UK Secret
Published13 Apr, 201209:01pm
