Has Trump been tamed?
Remember the end of the West? That was what many commentators (including me) foretold when Donald Trump won the American presidency in November. Causes for alarm abounded. The candidate’s own heedless and contemptuous remarks about allies and alliances; the exotic and eccentric characters at the top of his campaign; the stench of Russian...
How brands make the economic world go round
Market economies depend very heavily upon trust. As I sit here in this café, I am drinking tea someone made me. I trust that the person that made the tea has not sought to poison me, has not made the water so scalding I will be injured, has used cow’s milk instead of soya. I trust the Bank of England not to have suddenly withdrawn most of...
The Philippines and the economics of murder
After slow-drip revelations last month that several members of the Philippine National Police Anti-Illegal Drugs Group had kidnapped and killed a South Korean businessman in October 2016, a reluctant Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte called off his “war on drugs” at the end of January. It was particularly embarrassing for the government that...
Is it time for an NHS tax?
Major historical moments are rarely caused by a single event. No single explanation for the result of the Brexit referendum tells the whole truth. Like the Scottish independence referendum of 2014, Brexit was a very personal epiphany. Your reasons for voting Leave – or, indeed, Remain – were not necessarily the same as your neighbour’s....
We must not disguise the truth about honour violence
Honour violence often entails cruel and horrifying brutality. Last week, in Afghanistan, a 23-year old woman had her ears cut off by her husband in the northern province of Balkh. She’d been married to him since the age of 13. He was suspicious of her meeting other men when she visited her parents. It’s not an isolated case. This time...
The Co-Op didn’t just need capital – it needed capitalists
Neither crystal meth nor rent boys are entirely unknown pleasures among churchmen or bankers. But we do have to thank the Co-Op Bank for bringing all four together in the one person. Paul Flowers, the so-called “Crystal Methodist”, was kicked out of first the bank and then the Church after lurid accusations emerged about expenses abuse, drug...
Why Britain really is biased against the young
The biggest lie about democracy is that it means rule by the people. Yes, that might be the literal meaning (the kratos of the demos). But what it actually means is rule by the people who can be bothered. That’s why, for example, the latest YouGov polls here in the UK are even more devastating for the Labour Party than they outwardly appear...
China and Russia: an Eastern partnership in the making?
This Chaillot Paper, co-authored by Michal Makocki and Nicu Popescu, sets out to evaluate the scope and the actual implementation of the ‘pivot to the East’ announced by Moscow in the wake of its confrontation with the West over Ukraine. In particular, the study dwells on the ‘pivot within the pivot’ represented by Russia-China...
Another Rights Activist ‘Deported’ from Russian-occupied Crimea
Russia is increasingly using citizenship as one of its weapons against dissent and civic activism in occupied Crimea. It has claimed that imprisoned Crimean filmmaker Oleg Sentsov and civic activist Oleksandr Kolchenko ‘automatically’ became Russian citizens as its excuse for not returning the two Ukrainian political prisoners, yet uses...
Reflection: Sebastian Gorka – Medieval or Modern?
Photo by Sebastian Gorka via Wikipedia‘s Wikimedia Commons. Three factors led to Russia’s defeat and any outside actor will have to deal with these factors should they wish to drastically change the Afghan reality in a lasting way. To change Afghanistan, an outside power must do the following: install a national leader who is a Pashtun but...
