Showing 11 - 20 of 42
No 'third way' in a polarised Britain
News, John Lloyd, Published on 01/10/2018
» The British prime minister and the leader of Her Majesty's opposition gave speeches on the same day last week, outlining their vision for their country's economy -- and by implication, its society. They had little in common.
Building peace requires pragmatism and patience
News, John Lloyd, Published on 24/09/2018
» Doors are slamming all over the Western world; we shall not see them opened again in our life. This sentiment -- borrowing and adapting a remark attributed to British Foreign Secretary Sir Edward Grey on the eve of World War I (his phrase had lamps going out in Europe) -- seems to me at least as defensible as Grey's prophecy.
Anti-Trump op-ed boosts democracy
News, John Lloyd, Published on 10/09/2018
» The good news was well disguised in the anonymous cry of warning against the "amorality" of Donald Trump. A senior administration official, writing as an unnamed columnist in The New York Times, described how he and like-minded colleagues "are working diligently from within to frustrate parts of (the US president's) agenda and his worst inclinations." The message is that democratic habits -- and, crucially, civic decency and responsibility -- can, in step with free journalism, win out over degraded administrations.
How to save the modern Catholic Church from itself
News, John Lloyd, Published on 03/09/2018
» When the pope is given a cool, even combative, welcome in the Republic of Ireland, the Roman Catholic Church is in trouble. The country had been -- from its founding as the Irish Free State in the early 1920s after a violent break with the United Kingdom -- deeply influenced by Catholic teaching in the framing of its laws and the management of its institutions. It is now solidly secular -- and it has a list of hard questions to put to the Church.
Imagining a post-Putin Russia
News, John Lloyd, Published on 27/08/2018
» It's not the week to say it, but Donald Trump has a point. It isn't original and what it proposes will be hard to do, yet when he says that "getting along with Russia is a good thing", as he did before his meeting with Russian President Vladimir Putin in Helsinki last month, he isn't wrong.
Can Jones and Johnson be the face of 'new politics'?
News, John Lloyd, Published on 13/08/2018
» Two men of influence -- the conspiracy theorist Alex Jones and politician Boris Johnson -- now face media bans and ridicule for what they saw as speaking their minds. Both, though quite different in background, manner and actions, are pioneers in the new politics.
Three liberal prophets of doom
News, John Lloyd, Published on 31/07/2018
» Liberal democratic institutions and states are under sustained pressure, from outside and from within. The question now is how well liberal and democratic defences can withstand the onslaught.
Tribalism and the politics of World Cup football fever
News, John Lloyd, Published on 02/07/2018
» Would fans lay down their lives for football? Bill Shankly, the legendary football player and Liverpool manager, once famously said he was "disappointed" with the idea that the sport was a matter of life and death. "I can assure you," he said, "it is much, much more important than that."
Migrant misery spans worldwide
News, John Lloyd, Published on 25/06/2018
» It's an increasingly hard world for those seeking a better life in richer countries. Immigrants aren't welcome in most states, even where demographic trends reflect the need to expand the labor force to levels able to sustain and support aging populations.
The outsized power of Hungary's Premier Orban
News, John Lloyd, Published on 18/06/2018
» Closing a major university is a big deal. Created, staffed and maintained at large, usually public, expense, universities serve both a utilitarian and an idealistic purpose: to provide the highly-educated workforce modern economies require, and to uphold and further civilised values through the understanding of the world the various academic disciplines claim to provide.