Showing 1 - 10 of 11
Expect 2019 to test global stability
News, John Lloyd, Published on 03/01/2019
» The resignation of US Defence Secretary James Mattis stands not only as a radical disassociation from the actions of the president he served, but as a foreboding for the future, a warning for 2019 -- and beyond. And, for all the assurances the world is getting better, such as Steven Pinker's Enlightenment Now, there are huge geopolitical challenges to face and master to make that optimism real.
Struggling with the prolonged torture that is Brexit
News, John Lloyd, Published on 19/11/2018
» BBC political correspondent Chris Mason stood outside of the mother of parliaments last Monday morning and said he didn't have the "foggiest idea" about where Brexit is going. Then he made what have been described as "exasperated noises" -- and promptly became an online viral sensation.
Midterms resonate across Atlantic
News, John Lloyd, Published on 12/11/2018
» One of the major political messages of the US midterm elections has been that rural voters dominate the cities. While the Democrats made enough gains in urban areas to take control of the House of Representatives, Republicans were able to expand their majority in the Senate, where each state gets two senators regardless of population size. In an election where neither side can claim a sweeping victory, President Donald Trump's party did as well as it did because the small towns and the more sparsely populated rural areas of the United States are still, in the main, Trump country. Meanwhile, Democrat votes pile up in the cities, uselessly, from an electoral point of view.
Is populism a disease? Or a cure?
News, John Lloyd, Published on 29/10/2018
» Populist nationalism is here to stay. Many still believe it a phase which, like surliness in adolescence, will pass and be succeeded by orderly, thoughtful maturity. But they will find that the political world, already changed, will disappoint them. Liberalism, however defined, is not politics' default position: mainstream politicians are in a fight ring facing young contenders buoyed by a string of victories.
Steve Bannon's boost to Europe's far right parties
News, John Lloyd, Published on 06/08/2018
» The various movements gathered under the name of Europe's "far right" have not risen like a straight line on a graph. There have been -- still are -- lows as well as highs. Yet there is a new sense of purpose, thanks to a new movement -- called "The Movement," and launched by former Donald Trump aide Steve Bannon -- and to Hungarian premier Viktor Orban's call to the right to "concentrate our strength" on the May 2019 elections to the European Parliament.
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."
Italy's right to make wrong choice
News, John Lloyd, Published on 04/06/2018
» The Italian crisis is over, and has just begun. Its dimensions go far beyond Italy; they are now European, even global. The near three-month long improvisations on a theme of governance ended Thursday with the announcement of an administration headed by Giuseppe Conte, a law professor with no government experience tasked with running a cabinet controlled by the leaders of the two parties which form that administration -- a signal of weak, divided and warring politics at the summit of power for the foreseeable future.
Why Putin is still – genuinely – popular in Russia
News, John Lloyd, Published on 22/03/2018
» Vladimir Putin won big on Sunday. According to the central election commission, the Russian president glides into his fourth term after winning his biggest-ever election victory, with nearly 77% favouring him. His nearest rival was an affluent multi-millionaire communist who got more than 11% by presenting himself as a Putin-plus, with a programme of nationalising the oligarchs' property instead of merely controlling it.
In illiberal societies, a wider #MeToo movement
News, John Lloyd, Published on 13/02/2018
» In China, women calling themselves the "silence breakers" have demanded investigations into allegations of sexual harassment. In doing so, they pit themselves against a macho culture, a Communist Party deeply allergic to independent citizens' initiatives, and an exaggerated and assiduously cultivated respect for hierarchies, themselves male-dominated.