There is further controversy surrounding this project, focussing once again on the financial argument that it is not worth the money. The problem with Britain, and in particular England, is that its infrastructure falls short of modern needs. It is not just about money, it is about political will and the venerated status of the […]

To many the declaration by President Putin that Russia may be willing to back the use of force in the UN against Syria, if it can be shown beyond doubt that Assad was responsible for the chemical atrocity, comes as big a surprise as the UK Parliament’s No vote. Yet, however high the bar he […]

Unfortunately the response to the horror of gassed children foaming at the mouth and dying on camera has revealed a fissure between politicians and people which might prove to be a pivotal revolution in the development of public policy. All across Europe and the United States polls show a very substantial majority of the public […]

Yesterday’s unexpected vote rejecting the flawed policy so heavily driven forward by Cameron and Hague, was perhaps the most significant for a century, with repercussions which will travel far beyond these islands. The policy of confrontation and intervention which both the State Department and the Foreign Office have followed with such calamitous outcomes since 9/11 […]

This Blog is emphatically against any sort of armed intervention, missile strike or whatever in Syria. It can only make matters worse. There is no doubt that the apparent chemical attack is shocking. There is no doubt either that the Assad regime could have been quicker to let in the UN Inspectors. There is, however […]

The Tories are closing the gap with Labour, UKIP may have peaked and is beginning to attract negative publicity and the economy is showing positive signs of modest recovery. There is now a real prospect that in May 2015 things will be looking a lot better. The Tories will claim to be the architects of […]

This country is not used to fixed term parliaments and rarely experiences a five year government. It has only experienced coalition previously in wartime. It is therefore not surprising that Labour has to feel its way forward as the Opposition party. At the beginning the Coalition had a free ride, while Labour elected a new […]

Nobody gains from the crisis now splitting Egypt apart. Neither the army, nor the Muslim Brotherhood nor the millions of neutral Egyptians who just want their normal country back. Meanwhile hundreds die. The West is confused as to how it should react. Morsi’s presidency was clearly a disaster for all Egyptians who do not support […]

Since the end of the Cold War, U.S foreign policy towards Russia has been uneasy. There have been several attempts to re-calibrate, re-set or whatever words you like to use, but none has quite worked. Americans cannot understand this. It is, in fact, quite straightforward. For a good while after the collapse of the Soviet […]

This blog has set these four countries, each in various stages of state failure, together because they share several common factors which many readers will be able readily to set out. There is one element which particularly concerns this blog. They are all, to a greater or lesser extent victims of the abject failure of […]