Opinion

It was once said that the causes which destroyed the ancient republics were numerous, but in the case of Rome, one principal reason was the vast inequality of fortunes. The extent of inequality in Britain has been laid bare today in Fat Cat Wednesday - the day in which top bosses out-earn what the typical worker will earn all year. Executives will pass the average salary of £28,200 by midday, the High Pay Centre revealed, with figures confirming how pay differs “dramatically”...

As a new captain takes the helm of the richest and most powerful country in the world, it is time to take stock and analyse the position of the United States relative to its two largest adversaries: China and Russia. There’s been lots of loose talk of a so-called “underclass” which made Trump’s election possible. Columnists stuffed their columns with the same trite commentary about a “discontented” section of society in at least some respect. These sort of columns write...

Twenty-sixteen looked set to be a pretty dire year as far as celebrity deaths are concerned going in to the festive period. That's before George Michael, Carrie Fisher and Liz Smith really put the nail in the.... well, you get where I'm going. There's no denying that there has been a notable upsurge in the number of notable deaths this year. David Bowie, Prince, Harper Lee, Alan Rickman, Nancy Reagan, Muhammad Ali, Sir George Martin, Victoria Wood, Leonard Cohen, Glenn Frey, Sir Terry...

There are three certainties in life; death, taxes, and the unwavering guarantee that society’s top brass will always hold more sway in parliament than the everyday man. Yesterday across the country hundreds if not thousands of people embarked on the annual Boxing Day hunt emblazoned in scarlet coats and beige breeches, in spite of its illegality and despite the fact that public support has never been so low. A new poll has found that historic levels of Britons oppose fox...

Hate-fuelled, morbid and varnished with a disturbing veneer of instability, 2016 will forever be remembered as the year the world took leave of its senses. A reality show celebrity is now the most powerful man on earth, Britain has cut ties with its biggest trading partner and Mo Farah didn’t even make it into the top three spots for SPOTY despite achieving something no Brit has ever achieved before nor is likely to ever achieve again. Like the monotonous computer fix proffered up...

A few weeks back I joked about David Davis learning of an interesting alliance called the European Union following revelations that the Brexit MP was considering paying a fee for access to the single market as well as backtracking on several other mis-truths laid out on the campaign trail which would effectively leave us in a similar position to the one we voted to leave - just a few billion pounds lighter. It's a joke that seems to be becoming less funny...

Well, it’s that time of year again. The Christmas adverts which have been up since September, like a clock that’s stopped and momentarily has its time twice a day to be bang on cue, are finally relevant; we’ve been badgered to buy cards for anyone we’ve ever met, and kept a few spare in case someone buys us one late on; and, of course, it’s time for Christmas in schools. See, SENSIBLE schools will keep the Christmas kerfuffle to a...

Just when you thought you had seen the pits of this year's Christmas ad spree Labour release a re-hashed version of Do They Know Its Christmas and take the spoils at the final hurdle. Bravo them. Just when I thought I'd had my fill of abject humiliation for this year our shadow cabinet decide to turn up the cringe one more time. And what a howler it is. To the tune of  the Band Aid classic, it goes: Christmas is hard..... On...

As a native Nigerian, Nobel Prize winner and American citizen Wole Soyinka had felt encouraged that for the past eight years those on the African continent could boast that they had a contemporary descendent ruling the United States. Barack Obama rode to election victory on the back of messages of hope, progressiveness and equality, and yet he has been succeeded by a man who is the antithesis of all those things, leaving a disenfranchised hole in the heart of America. When...