Showing 31 - 40 of 48
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.
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.
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.
Calm down, America. Attacks won't break Britain
News, Peter Apps, Published on 08/06/2017
» When I rolled my wheelchair out of my apartment block on Sunday morning -- mere hours after three attackers killed seven a few hundred yards away in London Bridge and Borough Market -- the most striking thing was the sense of calm.
Stay on track, off roads
News, Postbag, Published on 08/05/2017
» Re: "MRTA defends bewildering Bang Phlat lane markers", (BP, May 7).
France finds it tough to rid itself of political corruption
News, John Lloyd, Published on 09/03/2017
» Political corruption in France is common, and usually -- if the politician is at or near the top of the political game -- unpunished by law. Yet the 2017 presidential election may mark something of a revolt against a semi-aristocratic disdain for the public whose tax euros have long been plundered for private or party use.
Trump tweets show disturbing side of social media
News, John Lloyd, Published on 06/02/2017
» Last March, three months before Britons voted to take the United Kingdom out of the European Union, then Prime Minister David Cameron asked Daily Mail proprietor Lord Rothermere to fire the newspaper's editor, Paul Dacre. The press baron, descendant of the family which did more than any other to create the British tabloid press, refused, and did not even tell Dacre of the request until after the result of the referendum. The incident, reported by the BBC, has not been denied by any of the parties involved.
Why America should be optimistic about Trump
News, Published on 21/11/2016
» I'm a Donald Trump optimist. Like the many who don't support him, I am alarmed that he won. But I don't believe he will be as bad as the worst fears. It's a very modest definition of optimism, but I think it's the best liberals can come up with.
Crash and burn
Oped, Postbag, Published on 09/12/2016
» The Dec 7 comment on the roadworthiness of double-decker buses, "Laxity on big buses causes threat to lives", is commendable, but not quite correct.
Leaks aren't always good for politics or journalism
News, Published on 19/10/2016
» Editor's note: This column contains language that some readers may find offensive Both journalism and politics now live in the leak culture, and both professions will be forever changed by it. Both have always benefited from leaks of some kind, from the officially authorised to the criminally filched. But today's ability to download and disseminate vast banks of information constitutes a new chapter in journalistic and political practice. Wikileaks has put US diplomatic cables in the public domain, followed by the much riskier leaking of sensitive files from the National Security Agency and that followed by the leaking of the Panama Papers, which showed how the rich secretly contrive to get richer.