Hi everyone – I’m Sahil from theforeignmonde.wordpress.com and I’m guest posting today – if you’re interested in the EU and foreign affairs etc. be sure to visit my blog. Hugo Rifkind’s article in the Times a while ago summed up my sentiment on the EU issue in a way – all conversations are bound…
Category: European Politics
How should we respond to the Brussels attacks?
The horrific attacks at a Brussels Metro station and airport, just five months after the atrocities in Paris in November has once again thrown the problems of radicalisation among young Muslims and questions over European border controls, (in particular the Schengen agreement) into the limelight. Despite revisions to the agreement expected to be announced as…
Labour has gone off the rails
The Labour party has been hijacked. Now, I’m sure some of you will be keen to tell me that it was Tony Blair who took the party off its proper course, but the opposite is true. For a party which is plagued with a lack of economic credibility, the early years of Blair are a…
Style, not substance, is the new politics
From Jeremy Corbyn on the left to Donald Trump on the right, from Bernie Sanders in America to Pablo Iglesias in Spain and Marine Le Pen in France, outsider candidates continue to make waves across the western world. And while these politicians are certainly proposing radical (if not always new) ideas, their different policies only…
Why I never hated the Lib Dems
Reading through Nick Clegg’s interview with the Independent, I was struck by a feeling that seemed odd. It seemed as though I was empathising with a politician. After the initial disbelief, I began to see why this was happening. Whilst I disagree with a lot of Lib Dem policy (most notably economic) I felt that…
Should the UK renew Trident?
“If the third World War is fought with nuclear weapons, the fourth will be fought with bows and arrows.” The decision of whether or not to renew Trident, Britain’s sea-based nuclear deterrent, threatens to tear apart an already deeply divided Labour party. It is an issue that puts Jeremy Corbyn, a long time believer in…
We must support our junior doctors
Like many people, while I support the right to strike, I’m not usually too keen on them actually taking place. A typical example would be when it comes to suspending service on the London Underground, whereby drivers paid in the region of £50,000 a year feel like their job is becoming too taxing and so feel inclined to…
In defence of Euroscepticism
The last time the public had a vote on our relationship with the rest of Europe was in 1975. At the time this was a vote simply over whether or not we should join a ‘common market’ which is quite difficult to vehemently oppose. However, not only has the EU evolved into a political federation, but no-one…
The media is making news, not reporting it
Labour’s cabinet reshuffle has been dominating the news for the past few days. What really ended up becoming an underwhelming restructuring of the party was portrayed as a watershed moment for it. While this really wasn’t the case, it seems that the media has tried its best to make it one (more on that later). What’s the…
2015: The political year reviewed
As the year is drawing to a close, it is only right that we look back and reflect on everything that has happened since January. In the runup to the general election, there was a tense time where the hot political issue being debated was how political issues should be debated. Cameron refused to take part without…
France is on a slippery slope
I find it very disconcerting that the far-right National Front (FN) has won the first round in France’s regional elections. While the second and third rounds have not yet commenced, the likelihood of the party winning the election appears now to be quite likely unless Francois Hollande’s incumbent Socialists and the Republicans led by former…
The government needs to stop patronising us
Parliament. Not that parliament, the Youth Parliament. You’d be forgiven for not really knowing much about it. In theory, a parliament run by young people dealing with issues sounds like an excellent idea. Surely having a bunch of GCSE students decide on the new GCSE system is better than having Michael Gove sitting in his…
Pertinent Problems 