Showing 1 - 7 of 7
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.
Beware the online culture warriors
News, John Lloyd, Published on 22/10/2018
» The news media in the Western world remains dominated by newspapers, magazines and broadcasters still known as the mainstream. The most vivid proof of their continued reign over public opinion is in the figure of US President Donald Trump, whose repeated attacks on "failing" publications like The New York Times and the Washington Post as "enemies of the people" is a backhanded tribute to their continued power.
Why Macron's 'third way' is now the EU's best option
News, John Lloyd, Published on 17/09/2018
» The largest question in democratic politics in Europe is: who's in charge?
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.
How the Catalonia vote threatens the EU
News, John Lloyd, Published on 06/11/2017
» The struggles for and against independence in the Spanish province of Catalonia are emblematic of the European Union's present strength and its future weakness. They also display the weaknesses, present and future, of the two leaders of the contending parties: Mariano Rajoy, the Spanish prime minister and Carles Puigdemont, president of Catalonia.
Xi's new power won't stop expressions of dissent
News, John Lloyd, Published on 30/10/2017
» Xi Jinping -- president of China, general secretary of the Chinese Communist Party, chairman of the Central Military Commission, chief of the military's Joint Operations Command Centre, chairman of the committees on cyber security, economics and finance among others -- has a new honour that will linger long after he leaves office.
Merkel sets direction for Europe
News, John Lloyd, Published on 11/09/2017
» Germans will choose a government on Sept 24, and that government is likely to be headed, for the twelfth year running, by Angela Merkel. The uncharismatic 63-year-old from East Germany may not have captured her fellow Germans' hearts, but she has appealed so strongly to their rational selves that polls suggest they find no reason to replace her.