Child Criminals : What Age is Too Young?

Posted on: 15 March 2010

When news leaked that Jon Venables had been taken back into prison earlier this month, deeply painful memories were stirred up once again. Back in 1993, Venables, along with his fellow ten-year-old, Robert Thompson, committed the horrific murder of the toddler, James Bulger, a crime that traumatised… Read Full Article …

The Ashcroft Affair : Damaging to Cameron?

Posted on: 09 March 2010

Opposition parties usually become nervous just before an election is called but often for no other reason than stage fright. They have a secure lead in the opinion polls but they fear that something, somehow will go wrong. The victory that once seemed certain now looks in doubt. But then, come polli… Read Full Article …

The Falklands : Time To Negotiate?

Posted on: 26 February 2010

With so much else going on in the world few people would have expected that a small group of islands in the far south Atlantic would be creating big news. But - once again - the long-standing dispute between Britain and Argentina over the Falkland Islands has flared up, threatening division not just… Read Full Article …

Baby-Boomers : Grabbing Too Much of the Cake?

Posted on: 19 February 2010

Britain tends to be preoccupied by issues of inequality more than most other countries are. People get very het up about what others are earning or how much wealth they have got. The fury over bankers’ bonuses is at least in part a reflection of that. We may not be a particularly ideological c… Read Full Article …

Greece : Who Should Bear It Gifts?

Posted on: 11 February 2010

Today’s meeting of the EU’s heads of government was supposed to be a fairly relaxed affair. The leaders were to ponder the future of the European economy over the next decade or so and work out strategies for improving the prospects. But, as so often, the meeting has been hijacked by a m… Read Full Article …

Defence : What Does Britain Need?

Posted on: 04 February 2010

Douglas Hurd, the former Conservative foreign secretary, used to say that Britain liked to “punch above its weight”. The country might no longer preside over the world’s most powerful empire and have become instead merely a small country of sixty million people on a planet of six b… Read Full Article …

Inequality : How Much Does It Matter?

Posted on: 28 January 2010

It is a commonplace of political commentary these days that there is little difference any more between what the parties believe in. Few Conservatives advocate unadulterated capitalism, red in tooth and claw, and there aren’t many members of the Labour Party who still talk about socialism. Amo… Read Full Article …

Kraft Swallows Cadbury : Should We Choke?

Posted on: 20 January 2010

It has been a long and fierce battle. Cadbury, Britain’s nearly two-hundred-year old chocolate manufacturer, rejected with scorn a bid by the giant American conglomerate, Kraft, to gobble it up. Other chocolate manufacturers turned up in search of something to nibble. Lord Mandelson said the B… Read Full Article …

Haiti : Catastrophe Strikes

Posted on: 15 January 2010

The pattern of events is all too depressingly familiar. A terrible natural disaster hits a poor country. There is panic and chaos. Television pictures beamed almost instantly round the world show suffering on an unimaginable scale. The world tries to rally. But days later there are still people buri… Read Full Article …

A Failed Coup : What Next for Brown and Labour?

Posted on: 07 January 2010

If cats are supposed to have nine lives, how many should prime ministers expect? At least three, if the experience of Gordon Brown is anything to go by. This week’s failed coup attempt against him almost certainly means the Prime Minister will survive to lead Labour into this year’s gene… Read Full Article …