• OPINION

  Europe struggles over Trump plan

  News, John Lloyd, Published on 07/08/2017

  » 'We have to understand, that we Europeans must fight for our own future and destiny," said Angela Merkel. This was the German chancellor speaking to a crowd of supporters in May, after a testy few days of a G7 summit that included reports in German news media that Donald Trump had called her country "very bad" for selling so many cars to the United States -- and which saw the US president emerge as the only G7 dissenter on combating climate change.

• OPINION

  Neglect of rising threats likely to leave toxic legacy

  News, John Lloyd, Published on 16/10/2017

  » Among many of us in the generations that have done well out of the post-World War Two period, there's now a feeling of guilt -- as there should be.

• OPINION

  Britain's current mess extends well beyond Brexit

  News, John Lloyd, Published on 13/11/2017

  » Britain -- ever-ready to boast stable politics and a faultless, often-called "Rolls-Royce" civil service -- is in a mess. Between scandals over sex, secret meetings, political donors and the royal family, the government is melting down.

• OPINION

  Why social democrats have become irrelevant

  News, John Lloyd, Published on 20/11/2017

  » In almost every country in Europe, parties of the centre-left struggle to remain competitive in the political arena. Yet social democracy -- though it can claim success in creating and developing public services which have improved the lives and health of citizens -- can now rarely convince its former supporters that it's still worth their votes.

• OPINION

  What Merkel's political troubles mean for the EU

  News, John Lloyd, Published on 27/11/2017

  » Want to be pessimistic about Europe? Let me count you the ways.

• OPINION

  From Guernica's ruins, emerges a lesson in fake news

  News, John Lloyd, Published on 11/12/2017

  » A little over 80 years ago, on April 26, 1937, German and Italian warplanes bombed the Basque town of Guernica, razing much of it. Italian planes targeted a bridge, while the German Condor legion hit the town with conventional and incendiary bombs, and machine-gunned men, women and children as they ran from the burning town.

• OPINION

  Democracy is key for uniting disparate Europe

  News, John Lloyd, Published on 08/01/2018

  » The European political year, grinding back into gear for 2018, is full of doubt, even woe. In the continent's major countries politics are stuck, or likely to stick, in cul-de-sacs from which exit is difficult. Only in France, under the banner not so much of the tricolour as the injunction En Marche! (Let's Go!), is there official optimism and vigour.

• OPINION

  Trump's Iran nuclear decision strains US-Europe ties

  Oped, John Lloyd, Published on 14/05/2018

  » Does Europe still have a partner, a big brother across the water? One which can be a scold, a nag, an annoyance, a puzzle -- but which has always been there for it? A partner that is also a protector, with a military and security network of unrivalled power and reach? Is the United States still that partner?

• OPINION

  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.

• OPINION

  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.

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