News (Page 361)

Jeremy Hunt’s first budget day as chancellor was in many ways more about politics than economics. Historically, the Conservative party’s electoral success has been based on a reputation for economic competence. October 2022’s infamous Liz Truss/Kwasi Kwarteng “fiscal event” seriously damaged this brand and caused considerable short-term economic damage. The Conservatives have been consistently behind Labour in the polls since. Labour is now more trusted to manage the economy and oversee economic growth. The challenges faced by Hunt in his attempt to present a “budget for growth” reflect months, if not years, of poorly focused, short-term politics. He had to balance the need for post-Brexit growth, reassure the markets after the October crisis and win back the electoral coalition thatContinue Reading

Labour’s Keir Starmer has one inestimable quality in leading a government-in-waiting a year out from a general election: a consistent 20-point lead in opinion polls. He also boasts an increasingly rare biographical feature: a big job before he went into politics. But that also meant his entrance was relatively late and he has betrayed, sometimes conspicuously, political inexperience. The Labour leader is currently engaged in a noticeable effort to shepherd his party to the antechamber of power. The latest step has been to present five missions for his administration. The sixth (unspoken) is to transmit a sense of seriousness and fitness for office, to demonstrate plausibility as a national leader. Projecting these qualities is always a challenge for the officialContinue Reading

The alarmist tone of recent tit-for-tat reports from the war in Ukraine has refocused attention on so-called “false flag operations” and their legality under international law. At the beginning of March, Ukraine dismissed as “provocation” a Russian claim that Ukrainian “terrorists” or “sabotage groups” were behind a series of disputed attacks and exchanges of fire in Russia’s Kursk and Bryansk regions, near the Ukrainian frontier. Overnight on March 9-10, Russia launched a barrage of 81 missiles against targets all over Ukraine, including six hypersonic missiles, labelling them retribution for those earlier attacks. In the week of the first anniversary of the start of Russia’s “special military operation” in Ukraine, the Institute for the Study of War published a report claimingContinue Reading

A referendum was held in Crimea on March 16 2014, when the region was under military control, to ask voters whether they wanted to be part of Russia. The official result was a 96.7% vote for Russia. At the time Crimean public buildings were held by Russian soldiers, and the military were seen across the peninsula. The Russian authorities had cited the Kosovo precedent – where Nato had intervened against the Serbs to create a protectorate over Kosovo – for the Crimean annexation. Russia had already used this rhetoric for its invasion of its neighbour Georgia in 2008. There was little evidence that Crimea was threatened within Ukraine and in need of an international rescue mission by Russia. But RussiaContinue Reading

Prostock-studio/Shutterstock As a parent, your primary concern is always to do the right thing for your child. No parent wants their child to suffer because they failed to seek help. But although protecting your child’s health is the primary social expectation you face as a parent of a sick child, there are also other, less clear social expectations. These expectations might leave you feeling unclear about where, when and how to seek help. In my research I have found that parents reported being criticised for consulting a doctor too late – but also for seeking help too early in an illness. One mother explained that: We’ve all taken a sick child to the doctor only to be pooh-poohed away, youContinue Reading