Politics

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...

By Bradley Allsop     The fact that my newsfeed and television screen are increasingly taken up by Nigel Farage’s smiling, smug face enrages me for so many reasons. Perhaps the biggest reason though, is that he’s parading himself as a panacea for societal woes, when really he’s just another facet of the problem, cut from the same mould as the rest of the political elite, albeit with a bit of added venom. So why is he seemingly doing so well,...

By Oliver Ward The Chinese built their High Speed Rail (HSR) in less than two years. In Britain we have been debating the subject for two years, members of all political parties have been stroking their chins in backrooms and passing memos between themselves but its expected completion date is still speck in the distance at 2026. And that's providing initial targets are met, which inevitably will be extended while the counties wrestle for their interests to be heard like...

By Philip Benton The local and European elections seem to have revolved around one key issue. The Daily Mail reading British public have had enough of failed promises from the Government to keep net immigration under control and have made their views known by voting for anti-EU parties like UKIP. A key policy for all the main parties fighting for power is to potentially revise Britain’s relationship with Europe. There have been calls for a renegotiation of the EU powers...

By Nikita Gush #Bringbackourgirls You have probably seen on your Twitter feed the trending hashtag #bringbackourgirls. This hashtag is referring to the horrific kidnapping committed by the Boko Haram Islamist militant group in which over 200 young Nigerian women were abducted from their school in Chibok, Borno State. These young women have been missing since April 15, 2014 and it is feared that some of the group have died or been sold into sexual trafficking. Presidents, politicians, and people with...

by Luca Foschi “My night time lessons via Skype are followed by thousands of disciples around the world”, sheik Omar Bakri said in the austere parlour of his residence in Tripoli. He lived in the UK between 1984 and 2006 when pressure from the government after the 7/7 terrorist attacks forced him to return to Beirut, where he was born 55 years ago. He is one of the most important figures in the British Islamic community and fought in Bosnia,...