Opinion
100 years on from suffragette hunger strikes, we’re still being force fed an unrepresentative democracy
I didn't eat for a day last week. This wasn't due to a bad curry or a particularly good night out on the town. My day of abstinence had a more noble purpose as I joined hundreds of others as part of a day of action organised by Make Votes Matter, a cross-party group campaigning for electoral reform set up in the wake of the 2015 General Election. Many high profile figures took part in the 'Hungry For Democracy' protest...
Ethiopia in peril – Africa’s development jewel faces crisis
By Professor Ann Fitz-Gerald Ethiopia’s ruling EPRDF coalition is facing its biggest governance crisis since its rise to power in 1991. With last week’s resignation of Prime Minister Hailemariam Desalegn many are watching and waiting to see who from the EPRDF’s four major ethnic-based parties will be taking over as Party leader. Depending on how the Ethiopian Government manages this Party matter, the country could be heading for widespread disturbance. Unrest could spill over into an already volatile region into...
The Conservatives have created the most perilous labour market in a generation
Today's labour market statistics have left a lot of people scratching their heads. While new jobs are being created and unemployment has ticked up, real wages have fallen for the tenth month in a row. In short, nothing really adds up. The reality is that under the Conservatives the labour market has changed significantly. The GIG economy has blossomed due to the flexibility afforded by zero-hour contracts, which means the old adage that low unemployment means a stronger and healthier economy no...
UKIP: The Party’s Over – “Gerard Batten is known for his extreme anti-Muslim views”
In sacking Henry Bolton and choosing Gerard Batten as their new interim leader, UKIP members have sounded the death knell for their party. Known for his extreme anti-Muslim views, UKIP founder member and London MEP Batten inherits an organisation (for the next 90 days at least) that is in debt to the tune of hundreds of thousands of pounds, lurching ever further to the right and into political irrelevancy. Nick Lowles, chief executive of HOPE not hate, said: “Gerard Batten...
Silvio Berlusconi’s comeback is bad news for Europe
By Robert Seiler As if Europe did not have enough corrupt, charismatic politicians who expertly undermine democratic norms to their own benefit behind a charming facade, Italy’s Silvio Berlusconi is currently enjoying a political renaissance that is bad news for Italians but also for the whole of the European Union – Britain included. Italians may have known better, but the rest of the EU thought it was rid of the “bunga bunga” premier when the crushing global debt crisis forced him from office in 2011. A conviction for tax fraud in 2013 and ouster from parliament later that year, together with a ban...
Brexiteers should be the biggest backers of a transition, here’s why
By Sammy Russell A number of pro-Brexit figures have criticised the transition period for leaving the UK a ‘vassal state’. Granted, the conditions of the transition period are a world away from the ‘take back control’ mantra of the Brexiteers - it leaves the UK a neutered state. But for the Brexiteers, championing a transition has always been their best bet. The UK leaves the EU at the end of the Article 50 period in March 2019 (the point of no...
Migrants aren’t a threat to the NHS – Losing the migrants that helped build it is
Migrants aren't a threat to the NHS - Losing the migrants that helped build it is That the NHS is acutely and chronically underfunded is an observation so often made as to be banal. Stats released last week showed the depth of the crisis: in January alone, more than 1,000 patients waiting 12 hours or more on trolleys and 55,000 operations cancelled. But its problems do not stop there. Another crisis is brewing in the NHS that risks being terminal:...
Think Brexit fanatics are angry? History may judge them even harsher
Why can’t Remainers just accept ‘they lost’, that it was a ‘democratic vote’, and just get on with their lives? Why can’t they just get with the programme? I’ll tell you. I'd consider myself a kind person. I've had some highs in my life, but it's definitely slapped me about a fair bit too. As a result, I continually try to empathise, to be polite, fair, and to do the right thing. They're about the only traits I pride myself...
Benefits assessments “still failing many people with mental health problems”
Last Friday (9 February), the Work and Pensions Committee released their interim first report into the experiences of disabled people claiming Personal Independence Payment (PIP) and Employment and Support Allowance (ESA), benefits intended to provide support for disabled people to live independently, or to manage the costs related to being out of work. Nearly 3,500 people provided evidence - an ‘unprecedented public response to a departmental select committee inquiry’ – according to the Committee. The report was described by the...