• OPINION

  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.

• OPINION

  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.

• OPINION

  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.

• OPINION

  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.

• OPINION

  Another Brexit vote is a bad idea

  News, John Lloyd, Published on 10/12/2018

  » In the "careful what you wish for" stakes, few issues rank higher than the plan for a second referendum by those in the UK hoping for a reversal of the country's June 2016 vote to leave the European Union (the "Remainers"). If secured, the outcome could be a fast track to a phenomenon the UK has so far avoided -- the creation of a large, angry populist party, probably of the right and perhaps also of the left.

• OPINION

  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."

• OPINION

  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.

• OPINION

  Trump peddles platitudes in Davos

  News, John Lloyd, Published on 30/01/2018

  » "When people are forgotten the world becomes fractured," President Donald Trump observed to the Davos forum in his breathlessly awaited speech on Friday.

• OPINION

  Once centres of hope, political parties are dying

  News, John Lloyd, Published on 03/01/2018

  » There's little difficulty in showing that some of the most venerable political parties of the democratic world may be facing terminal crises. The difficulty is in determining if government by a party or parties -- the sustaining base of administrations the democratic world over -- can last.

• 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.

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