Showing 31 - 40 of 54
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.
What Italy's power crash means for the EU: It's all bad
News, John Lloyd, Published on 07/03/2018
» Power has crashed down in Italy -- in two senses.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
Now, for a completely different clash of civilisations
News, John Lloyd, Published on 18/12/2017
» The Darkest Hour, a film which emphasises the courage and iron will of Winston Churchill through the first weeks of World War II, is drawing audiences and praise on its release in North America. It shows new generations that this man -- mocked and marginalised in the 1930s by his party -- was an inspirational leader during those bleak days, and beyond. Yet the acclaimed war-time prime minister was also an imperialist and a racist.
Middle Europe turns back on EU
News, John Lloyd, Published on 23/10/2017
» In the Oct 15 Austrian elections, the 31-year old head of the conservative Austrian People's Party took his formerly languishing party to victory and secured the chancellorship for himself. Sebastian Kurz is on course to be the youngest leader in the developed world.