America's leading Republican candidates for president, Donald Trump and Ted Cruz, have rabidly loyal grassroots voters. Both men's supporters viscerally hate the other and use social media to slander and brutalise the other man. Outside the conservative bubble, there is barely a hair's breadth between Cruz and Trump. One is...
West Virginia is the latest US state to introduce drug testing for welfare claimants. As one lawmaker put it, no-one living off his tax dollars should be 'laying around on welfare and drugs'. Florida recently required all welfare claimants to submit to drug testing, though the courts later ruled the...
The desperate masses moving through southern Europe will soon face the gruelling process of refugee assessment now that the EU has reached a morally questionable deal with Turkey. Panicking European governments have handed Turkey a political victory and sentenced thousands of migrants to an uncertan future. The EU will 'swap'...
The Sun is in an unenviable position. The tabloid's recent report claiming the Queen made eurosceptic remarks to Nick Clegg has prompted a formal complaint from palace authorities. For a paper that trades on its knee-jerk patriotism and publishes frequent gushing pieces on the monarchy, a false story about the...
As British voters prepare for the greatest act of democracy in decades, the concept of democratic government is in retreat almost everywhere else. It's easy to criticise Britain's archaic first-past-the-post system and unelected upper house, but the last five years have seen referenda on Scottish indepence and electoral reform, stronger...
By Darragh Roche Confession time: I follow George Galloway on Twitter. Like the dozens of political accounts in my newsfeed, Galloway's can usually pass unnoticed in the blur. Recently, however, I was drawn to his page following some posts about the Grassroots Out campaign – a pro-Brexit group that's seen...
By Darragh Roche It's not often MP s have the moral high ground when it comes to money. They get paid by the taxpayer, claim expenses for silly things and provide questionable value for money. But when a Commons committee put some simple questions to the European boss of Google,...
Some recent news items: Celebrity Big Brother contestant's possible affair, Oscar nominee takes his clothes off, Madonna's son seen with 'suspicious-looking' cigarette. This kind of trash journalism is everywhere. It clutters social media and arrogantly masquerades as socially relevant information. Every serious journalist should choke on stories about Kim Kardashian's...
By Darragh Roche Anyone who thinks taking down a statue of Cecil Rhodes will strike a blow against racism is delusional. The small, loud and opportunistic group of Oxford students demanding that Oriel College remove the statue are wasting everyone's time and will achieve nothing. The statue of a man...