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. TheContinue 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 lateContinue 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 disputedContinue 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 theContinue 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,Continue Reading
The BBC’s highest-paid presenter, Gary Lineker, will soon be back in action after being briefly suspended for what the broadcaster described as a breach of its impartiality guidelines. The former footballer’s tweet on March 7 described the wording of the new government policy on immigration as language “not dissimilar toContinue Reading
Sacrificial dilemmas are popular among philosophers. Should you divert a train from five people strapped to the tracks to a side-track with only one person strapped to it? What if that one person were a renowned cancer researcher? What if there were only a 70% chance the five people wouldContinue Reading
The theatricality of the warmth on show between British prime minister Rishi Sunak and French president Emmanuel Macron during their summit in Paris should not detract from how important it is that Franco-British cooperation has been renewed. Relations reached rock bottom under Boris Johnson and his successor Liz Truss. TheContinue Reading
One of the consequences of Russia’s war in Ukraine is the fact that the Kremlin has lost a lot of its influence in former Soviet countries. This creates opportunities to limit Moscow’s ability to leverage its once dominant role to further its war aims. However, it also means that RussiaContinue Reading
After more than four decades as seemingly implacable enemies on either side of a deep political-religious divide in the Middle East, Saudi Arabia and Iran have agreed to restore diplomatic relations and reopen embassies. The deal, which was signed in Beijing, comes seven years after diplomatic relations were severed inContinue Reading
