Inauguration day, here we are. Today, Donald Trump becomes the 45th president of the United States of America. A lot has been written about Trump breaking from conventional American foreign policy in numerous ways, not least of which in terms of volume having to do with how instead of seeing the European Union as the best guarantor […]
ALDE turning down the Five Star Movement is an epoch defining act of stupidity for European liberalism
For those of you who haven’t followed the story, the Five Star Movement, Beppe Grillo’s insurgent political force that looks to possibly even form the next Italian government if the Italian establishment doesn’t stitch up a voting system to stop them from doing so, decided to leave their grouping in the European Parliament and join […]
I wish the Left were consistent on the subject of imperialism
There are many things about the modern day Left that irritate me. But one of the biggest ones concerns imperialism. You can boil it down to a simple equation: British and American imperialism is one of the worst sins imaginable; anyone else outside of the West engaging in the same practice is at best not […]
John Kerry confirms what we already thought we knew about Syria and 2013
John Kerry, seeing out his last few days as Secretary of State, has discussed 2013 and the red line that never was regarding Syria rather candidly. “The president of the United States of America, Barack Obama, did decide to use force and he announced his decision publicly and he said we’re going to act, we’re going […]
Here’s my predictions for 2017
Making any predictions for an upcoming year has become a perilous exercise recently. One only has to look at the Tory majority the experts (who people are now sick of as a result, apparently) said was less likely than an asteroid striking the Earth that did indeed take place, or the double punch of Brexit […]
Will the Berlin-Milan episode kill Schengen?
Anis Amri, the man who had driven a lorry through a crowded Berlin market on Monday, killing twelve people and injuring scores more, was shot dead by Italian police in Milan after an altercation yesterday. There are many unpleasant elements of this week’s continental episode, but one that might have a lasting effect involves the […]
Trump’s election highlighted what some have known for years – that America has a class system
I can’t recall the number of conversations I’ve had over the years, usually semi-drunken ones, regarding whether or not America has a class system or not. Many Americans and non-Americans, left-wingers and right-wingers, have insisted during such arguments that America does not have a class system at all, and to think otherwise is to misunderstand […]
We can see now that the vote in 2013 was one of the most shameful episodes in the history of British foreign policy
Yesterday, the House of Commons hosted an emergency debate on Syria. I wasn’t sure whether to feel good about this or bitter about it. I could feel good in the sense that at least parliament could see that what is happening in Aleppo at present is horrific enough to warrant such a thing; bitter in […]
What next for the EU now that Renzi’s referendum has failed?
It wasn’t even remotely close. In yesterday’s nationwide Italian referendum, voters there rejected prime minister Renzi’s sweeping reforms to the constitution, 59-41. Or I should say, ex-Italian prime minister: Renzi, as expected, has resigned this morning. Also as expected, every public Eurosceptic in Britain is in full victory mode. Roger Helmer’s tweet summarises the message […]
If Fillon is the candidate in the run-off, will Marine Le Pen still win in May?
Sarkozy and Juppé have pulled a “2010” – they both used praise of the third, assumed to be out of the race candidate in an attempt to pull votes from that person’s camp, only to find that they had created a genuine rival for the big prize. But unlike in 2010, when Nick Clegg’s Lib […]