Two recent scandals have provided stark examples of what happens when moral authority is ceded to that new last refuge of the scoundrel — process. On anti-Semitism, Jeremy Corbyn and his hapless defenders wring their hands when pushed for decisive action and say he is a hostage to the party rule book. Poor Barry Gardiner […]
The British government is responsible for the poisoning of Sergei and Yulia Skripal in Salisbury, then falsely accusing the Kremlin of the crime and killing two guinea pigs in order to cover up the damning evidence. Meanwhile, a purported chemical attack on civilians in the Syrian city of Douma was a hoax concocted by British […]
As the dust settles on Saturday’s air and missile strikes on Syria, President Bashar al-Assad will count himself lucky. Although the barrage was twice as large as last year’s pinprick strike on an airfield, it was nevertheless far from the sweeping, sustained, regime-shaking campaign that seemed possible even a day before the event. Russia was […]
In 1986 when the sectarian carnage of Northern Ireland’s Troubles was running hot in my Fermanagh border community, I left to start my first term at Durham University. Like many young people from a Protestant heritage, further education over on the “mainland” was a both a way to expand your academic horizons and to explore […]
The world is becoming a more dangerous place. The bad-tempered row between the West and the Kremlin over the Skripals’ poisoning is being significantly compounded thanks to the latest chemical weapon attack by Syrian leader President Bashar Al-Assad on his own people. President Trump has warned of a “big price to pay” for this weekend’s […]
How should we deal with governments that act in a bad way, for example by attacking their neighbours? Today an increasingly popular tool that governments turn to is economic sanctions. This makes some sense: it is an easy choice and shows that politicians are doing something. The problem is that sanctions often have the opposite […]
As the revolving door at the White House spins ever faster, this week saw an expected arrival, an unsurprising departure, and then a somewhat unexpected arrival. First in, on Tuesday, was Mohammed bin Salman, crown prince of Saudi Arabia. Then on Thursday, President Trump’s national security advisor H.R. McMaster left his position. On his way out, McMaster […]
Britain’s advantage over Russia swung on a dinner. Before European leaders gathered to eat on Thursday, the European Union (EU) was supportive of the UK’s case over the attempted assassination of Sergei Skripal but, France and Germany apart, unconvinced that Moscow should be publicly blamed. “We need to investigate,” pleaded the Greek prime minister Alexis Tsipras, […]
After revelations that political consulting firm Cambridge Analytica allegedly appropriated Facebook user data to advise Donald Trump’s 2016 US presidential campaign, many are calling for greater regulation of social media networks, saying a “massive data breach” has occurred. The idea that governments can regulate their way into protecting citizen privacy is appealing, but I believe […]
On Monday, Britain and the EU announced a lot of progress on the terms of the British exit from the European Union, specifically when it comes to the so-called “transition stage” which will last until January 1st 2021, and during which Britain will take over EU rules in order to keep access to the EU […]
It’s becoming likely that the Russian state has been involved in another killing in Britain. Regardless of the detail, Russia has malign intent to this country. We should respond in three ways; accept, understand and act. First, we need to accept that we are in a new Cold War with the Russian Federation. This is not […]
We have never had a proper integration strategy in Britain. In an era of growing polarisation, we might all agree that this feels a much more anxious and fragmented society than any of us would want. Yet an action plan to change that has remained elusive. Making this happen now falls to Cabinet minister Sajid […]
An attack using a nerve agent in a British city is worse than an unspeakable crime. Amid domestic political disasters, the prime minister got the tone right in her statement to the House of Commons yesterday. It was a direct attack by Russia against this country using a powerful agent that is not known to […]
He has big hair, and lives in a fantasy palace. He makes alarming statements about using nuclear weapons, and he hires and fires aides on a whim. He is an isolationist, and he wants to bring peace to the Korean peninsula. No, not the American president; Donald Trump only spends his weekends at Mar-a-Lago. We […]
It seems to have happened again. While Downing Street has stressed that this is still an ongoing investigation, it’s increasingly clear that the government believes a former Russian spy living in the UK has been poisoned in a Russian state-sponsored attack. And it’s not hard to see why. The incident involving Sergei Skripal and his […]
For the Russian state, political assassination is routine. A string of defectors, opposition politicians, and wayward officials have met sudden and sometimes theatrical ends over the past two decades. But if Russia’s intelligence services did poison Sergei Skripal, the former GRU officer and MI6 asset, in Salisbury, this would represent a remarkable and disturbing escalation […]
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