World

"We're just waiting for implementation"

If I ever start a death metal band, I think it will have to be called “Implementation”. For months now, the various friends – and enemies – of Syria have been saying that the Kofi Annan cease-fire was the best chance for ending a humanitarian catastrophe and forestalling Syria’s descent into failed statehood and that it would have worked great, too, but for the lack of “implementation”.

Like the proverbial economist who tries to dig himself out of a hole by assuming a ladder, Western governments persist in the delusion that a political solution is attainable in Damascus – at least until Barack… Read More

François Hollande - taxing the rich

Under the budget proposals of France’s suave new prime minister Marc Ayrault, the rich will be held to account; profitable corporations will contribute substantially more to the Treasury, and ordinary workers and the poor will carry on much as before.

The retirement age for most public sector workers, which under the fugitive Nicholas Sarkozy, was moving up to 62, is back down to 60, and an additional 150,000 public sector workers, including teachers and police officers, will be hired to, er, make everything run more efficiently.

The contrast with Britain – where police officers, soldiers and border officials are to be sacked in large number… Read More

It's difficult not to feel a twinge of sympathy for the Army's top brass. There was General Sir Peter Wall, the Chief of the General Staff, putting a brave face on the Coalition's ludicrous decision today to reduce the size of the Army by a mind-boggling 20 percent, while at the same time he and his other senior officers are fully aware of the wanton damage that is being inflicted on this proud institution.

So far as Philip Hammond, the Defence Secretary, is concerned, the Army cuts are all about balancing the books at the MOD and keeping the Treasury happy. No doubt his career prospects of becoming Chancellor one day will be greatly enhanced if he can provide a healthy balance… Read More

Still standing: an oak in the Forest of Dean. Curiously, the Government’s U-turn might mean an enhanced future for the nation’s woodlands

It was one of the first of the more than 30 U-turns that have increasingly characterised this Government – and one of the sharpest and most humiliating, despite strong recent competition from George Osborne. Next week, ministers’ aborted attempt to flog off England’s forests will be back on the agenda for the first time in 17 months.

Back in February 2011, when the hapless more… Read More

A Turkish F-4 Phantom jet

What’s going on between Turkey and the United States with respect to Syria? In the last fortnight:

• An unarmed Vietnam-era Turkish reconnaissance plane performing a military exercise was shot out of the sky by Syrian air defences. Turkey insisted that the plane, after having briefly and accidentally dipped into Syrian airspace, was downed in international skies, about 13 nautical miles off the Syrian coast, by an anti-aircraft missile. Damascus said the plane was in Syrian airspace and gunned down by machine-gun fire which can only reach a shore-hugging 1.5 miles. The rescue plane sent to look for the two… Read More

Shooting British soldiers dead is becoming something of a national pastime for the Afghan security forces. The MOD reckons that a quarter of British fatalities in Afghanistan this year have been caused by so-called  "green-0n-blue" shootings (in Nato-speak, our troops are blue and the Afghans are green).

In the latest incident the shooting, carried out by a member of Afghanistan's Civil Order Police – which is supposed to be better trained than the regular police force – was preceeded by a fierce argument between the British soldiers and the Afghan. Witnesses say there was "a lot of shouting" before the Afghan drew his weapon and shot three of the soldiers dead, wounding a fourth. The Afghan policeman was himself shot and wounded,… Read More

The decision to add the Union Flag to British overseas aid has been welcomed widely. After all, when millions of pounds is being spent on food, medicine and water in the developing world, isn't it right that British taxpayers' contributions are recognised? In the past, who – apart from development wonks – would have known that the stencilled letters DfID signified a gift from the people of Britain, via its Department for International Development? In announcing the new logo, Andrew Mitchell, the Secretary of State for International Development, said:
British aid is achieving results of which everyone in the United Kingdom can be proud. And I am determined… Read More

Angela Merkel wants "more Europe, not less Europe"

German finance minister Wolfgang Schäuble’s interview this week with Der Spiegel should be required reading on both sides of the Atlantic for anyone concerned about the future of the nation state in Europe. It is perhaps the most important set of statements by a German official in recent years addressing the European Project, and is highly revealing of a closed, fixed mind-set among EU elites that is massively out of touch with public opinion across most of the European Union, including within Germany itself.

A new YouGov poll has found that only 43 percent of Germans would vote to… Read More

Graphic showing where the Turkish plane disappeared

According to a US  government source privy to the Nato meeting called by Turkey on Tuesday, Ankara has requested that the alliance draw up contingency plans for a no-fly zone to protect Turkish territory in the event of further acts of Syrian aggression. Turkey invoked Article IV of the Nato charter, which calls on the alliance to “consult” together whenever one of them deems that the “territorial integrity, political independence or security” of any member is threatened, after Syrian air defence systems shot down a Turkish F-4 Phantom jet that was conducting a training exercise. The Turks say that… Read More

Gina Rinehart (Photo: Bloomberg News)

Which of these makes a more useful contribution to the well-being of the world, would you say?
a) an industry which creates thousands of (very well-paid) jobs, brings in billions of dollars in export earnings, massively boosts economic growth, contributes greatly to the government's tax revenues and furnishes the world with an incredibly useful product essential to everything from bridge- and house-building to car manufacture to sauce pans to knives and forks.

b) an industry which depends for its survival on spreading fear and panic around the world – poisoning the minds of children, warping the outlook of adults – using a mix… Read More