Politics

By Guy Dorrell @GuyDorrellEsq With one outburst, Tracey Emin unwittingly created a new art movement. “Your paintings are stuck, you are stuck! Stuck! Stuck! Stuck!” criticised her at-the-time boyfriend, Billy Childish’s view on how art should be. Emin’s art had become about the conceptual; My Bed and Everyone I Have Ever Slept With 1963-1995 being her two most notorious pieces. Childish however, had less interest in conceptualism than in traditional figurative painting, essentially to make art imitate life. When life...

By Marcus Hunt Iraq is a state composed of at least three separate nations: Sunni Arabs, Shia Arabs and Kurds. Unlike in Eastern Europe in the aftermath of World War I, the Sykes-Picot agreement drew borders that ignored national and religious affiliations. It was a grave mistake to do so, its consequence has been a society riven by sectarianism and held together only by the grip of dictatorship. It is at last unravelling, and that is to be welcomed. The...

By Gregory Taylor On 8th June 2013 the British government made a pledge at the ‘Conference on Nutrition for Growth’ held in London committing £375 million towards feeding some of the poorest people in the world. This was a huge amount of money for the British Government to promise, but since then only around five per cent of this money has been accounted for in its spending. Although better than nothing, more could be done on this important issue. Of...

Best Newsnight Moments from the past 25 years.  Jeremy Paxman has stepped down as presenter of Newsnight after 25 glorious years of expertly intimidating politicians as the people's voice. Leeds-born Paxman has been criticised over the years for being overly aggressive, intimidating and condescending, but in confronting the secretive world of politics he has been equally lauded for being tough and incisive. Over the past quarter of a century we have been entertained and shocked in equal measure as he ruthlessly tore apart...

By Artur Salles Lisboa de Oliveira The World is likely to get surprised by the attitude of Brazilians toward the World Cup, especially when the games will be held in Brazilian soil. Given the fact that we have five world championships on our belt, soccer is perceived as a stronger driver of feelings such as pride and happiness. However, it is time to think over the importance of soccer in Brazil and no better time to do it than now. Brazilians...

By Andy Irwin Labour needs to stop being terrified of its roots and be the loud voice of social justice – or risk irrelevance I recently had a rant at the Labour party on its Facebook page. It was lunchtime at work and I had just witnessed their latest party political broadcast entitled ‘The Uncredible Shrinking Man’ – quite possibly the most depressing three-minutes-and-forty-six seconds that I will never reclaim. A brief précis: Nick Clegg is the uncredible shrinking man –...

By J T Coombes www.globalmagnacarta.com @GMagnaCarta Images and beliefs planted during the educational process, particularly in junior school, are a powerful tool with which to shape future society, something religious institutions have recognised and used for centuries. Within state schools education has been a political ‘football’ as successive governments, like religions, have sought to impose their vision of how to nurture our young. Just like a football the direction of education has bounced back and forth, leaving teachers and pupils...

By Joshua Danton Boyd Recep Tayyip Erdoğan is the 25th Prime Minister of Turkey and has been in power since 2003. In his time he has seen Turkey’s GDP rise, brought the unemployment rate down after it skyrocketed during the recession, and saw the country’s per capita income triple during his first six years in power. He has managed to win three elections so far. His party, the Justice and Development Party (AKP), won 34% of the vote in 2002,...

By John Simm There was a certain degree of shock after the recent European elections. Joey Barton's not too tactful sentiments on Question Time summed it up quite adequately. Popular opinion often shifts to the right during recessions with people blaming "others" for their current poor fortunes. They always look back to the past "before those guys showed up" and see things through rose tinted spectacles. But a great deal of UKIP's current success is due to image and perception...