On the day the coalition government was formed, I found myself briefly alone with an exhausted David Cameron as he was about to enter Downing Street. So I took the chance to suggest he use this seismic moment to remould politics by giving ministers and MPs far more freedom to speak their minds. I argued […]
Few people would have expected Bernard Hogan-Howe to become the nation’s latest outspoken campaigner for review of our drug laws. Yet this straight-talking former copper, who started out pounding the streets of South Yorkshire then rose over almost four decades in uniform to become chief of the Metropolitan Police, has just called for an urgent […]
There is one fact that everyone can agree: the war in Syria is utterly appalling, an eruption of hell that stains humanity. Hundreds of thousands of people have been killed, millions displaced from their homes and a magical corner of the Middle East dripping with history has been turned into hell. As the conflict drags […]
I went to hospital earlier this week for a small but troubling skin condition. Having expected to spend the morning stuck wearily as usual in dreary waiting rooms, I was seen immediately upon arrival and my problem dealt with by a friendly young doctor. She was unsure about one issue, so called in a senior […]
When I was in Liberia three years ago covering the ebola epidemic, I was amazed to discover the depth of antipathy many locals felt towards their leader. Ellen Johnson Sirleaf is, after all, hailed in the West as Africa’s first female president and was awarded the Nobel peace prize for her work rebuilding a country […]
It used to be said that there was a Chinese curse wishing someone might live in “interesting times”. As we grapple with the impact of the latest electoral shock to our system, it is hard not to wonder if we in this country have been so cursed today. Consider recent events: four in 10 voters […]
What a strange and suddenly absorbing election. The anticipated coronation of Theresa May, touching 50 per cent support in polls after calling the election, has turned into a tremulous stagger towards the finishing line. Jeremy Corbyn, despite his hard-left manifesto and so much historical baggage, has been performing better than most expected. He seems almost […]
The Sunshine Policy of engagement between the two Koreas ran for a decade until 2008, won the Noble Prize for its originator, and proved to be dismal failure. Peaceful engagement, dialogue and dollops of aid did little to alleviate the suffering caused by the cruelties of the Kim dynasty, let alone thwart their chemical and […]
The spring sun shone and cherry blossom fluttered down to the delight of locals as I sauntered through Namsan Park, a beautifully-kept oasis atop a mountain in Seoul last weekend. Beneath me lay the glistening skyscrapers of one of the world’s most remarkable cities: fashionable, frenetic and constantly evolving. This is the sprawling home to 24 […]
So here we go again: Red Nose Day has arrived with japes, high jinks and silly stunts taking place across the land. Pupils spray hair red, office workers don fancy dress, village halls hold bake-offs and Piers Morgan has gone silent. Some may find the forced jollity tiresome. Yet since the launch of Comic Relief […]
For anyone my age, the death of Martin McGuinness brings very mixed feelings. We grew up to a backdrop of bombs and bullets in British cities, directed by this man, his allies and their vicious paramilitary forces. It is easy to forget that the Irish Republican Army brought far worse terror to our streets than […]
Fine words flowed at birth of the world’s newest nation six years ago. Britain spoke of “a moment of hope and optimism for the future” with then foreign secretary William Hague expressing pride at standing beside the people of South Sudan as they sought “a future of stability and prosperity”. President Barack Obama talked with […]
Theresa May yesterday gave the clearest indication of Britain’s future direction of travel. Her mantra is “Global Britain” – a phrase we will hear endlessly over coming years. The referendum was a vote “to become even more global and internationalist in action and in spirit”, she said. Certainly, it was good to hear May speak […]
In these divided days, the existence of a crisis in social care is one of the few areas of consensus. Labour has accused the Government of failing the sick and old. And on Thursday, Sajid Javid is set to announce plans to permit higher council tax rises in order to help cope with ever rising […]
Economists are not known for unity of outlook when predicting the future. But before June’s vote on Brexit, almost all agreed on one thing: the British economy would be damaged by a decision to withdraw from the European Union. One survey found just one in 20 believing this might be a smart move. “It is […]
Shortly after becoming prime minister six years ago, David Cameron reiterated his much-mocked idea of a national “happiness index”. “It’s high time we admitted that, taken on its own, Gross Domestic Product is an incomplete way of measuring a country’s progress,” he said, before going on to quote Robert Kennedy’s endlessly repeated dictum that GDP […]
The Belgian region of Wallonia was once called the crossroads of Europe. It sent arms to Spain in medieval times, then became the first place on the continent’s mainland to have an Industrial Revolution, aided by an influx of English industrialists. Wallonia was famous for making fine lace and chocolate, using cocoa imported from colonial holdings […]
When The Independent launched in 1986, I was working on a weekly newspaper in the West Midlands with fuzzy ambitions to reach Fleet Street. It was a time of tumult over what was laughably called new technology, with owners and editors trying to break the deadly stranglehold of outmoded print unions exploiting the fragility of […]
‘What is the point of this democracy?’ The question came from a tourist guide in Tunisia, the solitary success story of the Arab Spring. Five years ago protesters, inspired by a self-immolating street trader, ousted their nation’s long-serving dictator and sparked revolts across the region. Now this country is the first modern Arab state judged […]
So here we go again. First the tragic slaughter of innocents in Paris, followed by that tense, bloodstained hunt for the murderers. Now 170 largely-foreign hostages have been seized by gunmen in an upmarket hotel in the Malian capital of Bamako. The 140 guests being held reportedly include people from France, China and Turkey, along […]
