Section: Prospect (The United Kingdom)
Defence review: what is Britain’s place in the world?
David Cameron (centre) visits the Royal Air Force station RAF Northolt, in west London. © Justin Tallis/PA Wire/Press Association Images Despite some recent evidence to the contrary, the British have a vocation for strategy. We did not outfight Germany twice in the 20th Century; we did, though, make better use of intelligence and industrial...
Who is the real David Cameron?
© Suzanne Plunkett – WPA Pool/Getty Images) It is both a strength and a weakness of a political personality that we cannot be quite sure who they are. A certain elusiveness means a politician can avoid being fixed and defined by events. Too little definition means a politician has nothing to draw on during the bad times. It is a difficult trick...
Fall in UK GDP poses extra challenge for Osborne
George Osborne is having his worst day since the government won the election in May © Yui Mok/PA Wire/Press Association Images Not a particularly good day for George Osborne as he has to face the realities of the voting down of his working tax credits legislation by the House of Lords. At the same time the first estimate for GDP for the third...
Putin’s plan for Syria
A man holds portrait of Russia’s President Vladimir Putin (R) and Syria’s President Bashar al-Assad (L) during a rally in support of Syrian regime in front of the US Embassy in Moscow in 2012. © ANDREY SMIRNOV/AFP/Getty Images As David Cameron prepares the way for a vote on bombing in Syria, Britain faces an ugly choice: whether to...
Who is Nobel literature prize-winner Svetlana Alexievich?
Belarusian journalist and Nobel Prize winner Svetlana Alexievich (© AP Photo/Sergei Grits) Who is Svetlana Alexievich? Svetlana Alexievich was born in Ukraine on 31st May 1948 to a Ukrainian mother and Belarusian father. Her family moved to Belarus, which was then a Soviet republic, when she was a child, and her parents worked as teachers. She...
What is Putin’s plan in Syria?
Russian President Vladimir Putin gets out of his car as he prepares to meet French President Francois Hollande at the Elysee Palace. © AP Photo/Alexander Zemlianichenko The purpose of Russia’s direct military intervention in Syria is clear and driven by tactical considerations. It is also impractical. President Putin has made it clear from...
The Auschwitz paradox: an interview with Timothy Snyder
Heinz Jost (centre), commander of Einsatzgruppe A between March and September 1942, on trial at Nuremberg in 1948 (photo: Wikimedia Commons) In his 2010 book “Bloodlands: Europe Between Hitler and Stalin,” the American historian Timothy Snyder identified an area stretching from central Poland, through Ukraine, Belarus and the Baltic States to...
Refugee crisis: politics aside, Britain needs immigrants
Flowers and balloons doecrate a fence as a welcome sign at the temporary accommodation centre for refugees in Luechow, Germany. © Philipp Schulze/dpa On Wednesday this week, Jean-Claude Juncker, the President of the EU Commission, is scheduled to unveil the EU’s latest proposals to address the migration crisis. Previous initiatives have not...
The end of polio
An Afghan health worker administers polio vaccine drops to a child on the second day of a vaccination campaign in Kabul. © SHAH MARAI/AFP/Getty Images) On 11th August 2014, the last ever case of polio in Africa was reported in Somalia. After a three decades-long global programme to eliminate the disease for good, the end is now in sight. Somalia...
Jimmy Carter: there is zero chance for the two-state solution
Former US President Jimmy Carter visits the Arab neighbourhood of Silwan in East Jerusalem © Pool/Pool “At this moment, there is zero chance of the two-state solution,” said Jimmy Carter, giving his bleakest pronouncement yet on the Israeli-Palestinian deadlock to which he devoted much effort while President of the United States, and even more...
