By Cagri Cobanoglu – the foreign news editor of Akşam – a national Turkish daily After more than a decade in power, the AK Party of Turkey is facing its biggest crisis yet. After a massive corruption scandal involving sons of three cabinet ministers broke out on 17 December, the government has had to deal with several accusations from different political circles. It was equally telling that prime minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan could not stop investigation against his ministers’ sons...

By Drew Nicol 2013 has been a historic year for women’s sport. TV presenter Clare Balding, prophesised back in January that: “When the history of sport is written in 100 years’ time they will look back at 2012 and the Olympics and Paralympics and see the impact in 2013.” – How right she was. The legacy of the Olympics has galvanised millions of people who previously had little or no knowledge of women’s sports beyond the mainstream to become active...

By Rebecca Doodson, Senior Conduct & Compliance Officer at the Association of Accountancy Technicians (AAT) Allegations of tax avoidance by large companies over the past year have caused outrage from many, not least from small businesses. This outrage is not necessarily unfounded. BBC Business have reported that Margaret Hodge, Chair of the Public Accounts Committee, said “ approach was firmer… when pursuing small businesses” and seemed to “lose its nerve” when chasing tax from large multinational companies. HMRC have “strongly disputed” these...

By Pieter Cranenbroek – International Politics Blogger It has been an eventful year for the lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender community (LGBT). Germany recently became the first European country to add an extra gender box on forms, which gives recognition and expression to intersex and transgender people, whereas same-sex marriage laws have entered into force in four countries this year. However, in the week that the UK announced the official date for same-sex marriage to be allowed in England and Wales,...

By Nathan Lee, Finance and Politics Correspondent Regional economic deficiencies must be solved by business attracting business. Boris Island proposals may have been rejected in the latest Airports Commission report, but London Island remains firmly on the agenda. Above the need for extra airport capacity in the South East, the recent report highlights the extent to which the UK is becoming a two tier economy. Birmingham and Stansted expansions were rejected along with the Mayor’s pie in the sky vision...

By Joe Mellor, In house Reporter  When the smoke turned white from the chimney perched above the Sistine chapel I and many others thought “here we go again”. Another Pope who hates homosexuals, cosies up to the wealthy and ignores sexual abuse claims within catholic clergy. How wrong we were. The man who replaced amateur goalkeeper and former Nazi youth member Benedict XVI was Argentina’s Cardinal Jorge Mario Bergoglio, the first non-European pope for 1,300 years (the last being Pope Gregory...

By Jack Peat, Editor of The London Economic The British army employs more than 400,000 people to protect our small island, almost two people for every square kilometre in the country. Compared to say, jobseekers’ allowance (£4.91 billion) or housing benefits (£16.9 billion), the cost of fielding our soldiers abroad in conflicts we started is huge. It costs $60.8 billion to maintain the UK’s armed forces; only Russia, China and the US spend more per year. A damming study entitled...

By Mary Mellor, Emeritus Professor, Northumbria University George Osborne’s Autumn Statement was a classic espousal of handbag economics, so named after the saint of the handbag, Mrs Thatcher. Handbag economics is the common sense of our age.  Public sectors are like households, they must live within their means, balance their books, cut their coat according to their cloth. Britain is to face more years of austerity, not because it is in recession, but in pursuit of the handbag ideal. According to...

By Malcolm Henry, Author of Views From The Boatshed There’s a debate going on in some nerdy corners of the internet about negative interest rates, which sounds like a desperately dull thing to be wasting time on, but it could be the spark that lights the lamp that leads us out of the economic gloom into a bright and prosperous future. A negative interest rate is being considered by some as the only plausible way to stir the economy out of the...