Section: Prospect (The United Kingdom)
Gerard Lyons’s “Guide to leaving the EU” is almost childish in its optimism
Gerard Lyons, Chief Economic Advisor to Boris Johnson ©Lauren Hurley/PA Wire/Press Association Images The UK Referendum, An Easy Guide To Leaving The EU, Gerard Lyons Read more: It’s time for Vote Leave to come clean Historically, populist movements have drawn support by preying on insecurity and uncertainty. As the wonderful historian...
Why we still don’t understand the Somme
British troops during the Battle of Morval, an attack that took place during the Battle of the Somme, 25th September, 1916. Photo credit: the Imperial War Museum : A drama never surpassed Last week the Culture Secretary, John Whittingdale, joined with the Royal British Legion to encourage the nation to mark the centenary of the first day of the...
Putin’s Syria success puts western foreign policy to shame
Russian pilots upon their return from Syria to a Russian air base in Primorsko-Akhtarsk, southern Russia, 16th March. ©AP/Press Association Images by Robert Fry: a very unChinese standoff in the South China Sea Kremlinology is a pastime for consenting adults in private. Trying to divine Russian motives and objectives is a speculative game for...
A response to Gisela Stuart: voting “Remain” is the truly radical choice
Demonstrators in Spain carry a banner in support of Podemos, a left-wing political party founded in 2014 ©jacinta lluch valero At the start of this month, Labour MP Gisela Stuart wrote a piece for Prospect entitled “Brexit is the left-wing choice.” Here, former Europe Editor of the Guardian John Palmer explains why he disagrees. Let me start by...
Syria’s “ceasefire” is holding—but for how long?
A Syrian boy rides a bicycle through a devastated part of the city of Homs, Syria, 26th February, 2016. ©Hassan Ammar/AP/Press Association Images : What is Putin’s agenda in Syria and Ukraine? The cessation of hostilities in Syria that was brokered by the US and Russia and began on 27th February is just about holding. Aid organisations have...
Could David Cameron save the EU?
British Prime Minister David Cameron (left) speaks with German Chancellor Angela Merkel (second right) at a European Union summit in Brussels on 17th December, 2015 ©Francois Walschaerts/AP/Press Association Images : Twelve things you need to know about Brexit Consider the following news report: “The leaders of the… European Union nations went...
Is the Syrian ceasefire a lost cause?
Turkish artillery fire from the town of Kilis in Turkey towards northern Syria, 15th February 2016. Today, Turkey defied international calls and shelled rarts of northern Syria for the third day in a row. ©Halit Onur Sandal/AP/Press Association Images : We can’t tackle IS without tackling Assad We are about to see another twist in the tale...
The BBC’s “Inside the War Room” should never have been made
A solder in a dramatised scene from World War Three: Inside the War Room ©BBC, Gabriel Range : after Ukraine, are the Baltics in Putin’s sights? With the angry crowd wielding Russian flags, it looks just like a scene from Ukraine’s eastern Donbass region. Men in balaclavas storm a local government building and remove the flags from...
Gazprom: how the world’s biggest gas producer lost its swagger
A worker welds the first section of the Gazprom South Stream natural gas pipeline in the town of Sajkas, 80 kilometers (50 miles) north of Belgrade, Serbia, on 24th November. ©Marko Drobnjakovic/AP/Press Association Images Gone are the days of Gazprom’s powerful swagger and threats to diversify its business away from Europe to Asia. The...
North Korea sanctions: will US-China relations last the week?
United States President Barack Obama (right) and and President XI Jinping of China during a toast at a State Dinner in the White House in Washington, DC on 25th September, 2015© Pool/ABACA/Press Association Images on China: will China’s currency crash the global economy? US Secretary of State John Kerry will meet with Chinese President Xi...
