To read some of the coverage of the limited air and missile strikes against Syrian military targets on Friday April 13 2018 one might have deduced that this was Iraq War II the sequel. On the one hand May and Trump were busy congratulating themselves on their “tough” military response to the Syrian regime’s murderous use of chemical weapons against civilian targets in Douma. On the other, elements of a Stalinized Left who are reluctant to recognise the threat...

  Prime Minister Theresa May followed the US President's announcement of joint military action against Assad, insisting the strikes would be "targetted" and "limited" to degrade the Syrian forces' chemical weapons capabilities. As air raid sirens and explosions were heard in the Syrian capital, Theresa May said that Russian denials of Syrian responsibility for last weekend's chemical weapons outrage and blocking of a UN Security Council resolution had left the US, UK and France with no choice. The timing of...

Warplanes being maintained and flown at RAF Lakenheath & RAF Coningsby

  Britain’s biggest car manufacturer, employing 40,000 people in the UK is set to lose 1,000 temporary contracts. The job losses according to reports are due to cuts in production at Jaguar Land Rover’s Solihull and Castle Bromwich plants in the Midlands, where Range Rovers and the Land Rover Discovery SUV are built. The jobs of 1,000 agency workers will be hit. The carmaker now owned by Indian Tata Motors is set to make an announcement to staff on Monday...

American President Donald Trump has recently posted several tweets that outline his concerns about the Amazon business model. The concerns have led to more news concerning Amazon and the parcel delivery company UPS, who, it has been revealed, have been feuding about Amazons use of the United States Postal Service (USPS) for the past few years. Trump’s first tweet read “I have stated my concerns with Amazon long before the Election,” and this tweet was shortly followed by, “Unlike others,...

Craft spirits have witnessed an exponential rise in popularity since the turn of the Millennium. According to the American Craft Spirits Association, the United States is home to more than 1,500 craft distilleries, and according to a 2016 report; America’s craft distilling industry sold nearly 6 million cases, equating to $3 billion in sales. As the American craft whiskey market booms, one fundamental question is raised. Is craft whiskey really any better than mass produced spirit from age-old titans? While...

French drama Custody (original title Jusqu'à la garde) opens with mother Miriam (Léa Drucker) and father Antoine (Denis Ménochet) arguing over Antoine's rights to see his two children. Initially there is a level of sympathy for Antoine, and an audience can question whether he is being unfairly maligned by a seemingly dislikable mother. I was also reminded of the issues of tit for tat arguments in a family court between parents, with what is the truth being a matter of...

Two teenage boys have been arrested on suspicion of murdering a 14-year-old girl who was found battered to death in a park. Officers were called to picturesque West Park in Wolverhampton after the schoolgirl's body was found by a passer-by at around 7am on Thursday (12/4). West Midlands Police said it quickly became apparent that nothing could be done to save her and she was pronounced dead at the scene. A post mortem has since revealed the girl, who has...

In the couple years since Steven Spielberg professed that the western was dead, we have seen a mini revival in the genre. Whether it is The Hateful Eight, Hell or High Water, or even The Revenant a new generation of filmmakers have connected with this type of film. German director Valeska Grisebach is the latest to reimagine the genre with her third feature. Western is set in a remote rural town in Bulgaria, near the Greek boarder. There, German workers...