The small town of Ranya in Iraqi Kurdistan once loomed large in British foreign policy and now matters a great deal to Labour’s migration policy. The Kurdish uprising against Saddam Hussein’s genocidal dictatorship began there in 1991 and was nearly crushed before John Major pioneered a safe haven over the
The high octane theatrics of recent weeks in Washington have frazzled and terrified the world. It’s all been great TV as Donald Trump revealingly said after kneecapping the Ukrainian President in the Oval Office and in his big bang announcement on tariffs. Will Hutton eloquently nails the fundamental flaws in
Party meetings become tough and tedious when moderates resist predatory groups that exploit Labour as a recruiting ground but don’t share its values of social democratic change by parliamentary means. In the early 1980s there was a running confrontation in Brighton and elsewhere with the Militant Tendency, formally known as
This year sees the 50th anniversary of the referendum to leave or remain in the Common Market, as the EU was then called, and which the UK had joined two years earlier. The referendum was Labour Prime Minister’s Harold Wilson’s gambit to overcome the party’s deep divisions on Europe and
Slaves of Roman emperors reminded them they were mortal with the words “look behind you.” I sometimes think that each CLP should elect an Officer for Devil’s Advocacy. Their wise words could be “look around you.” We can see that the lamps of the Left are going out all over
Donald Trump’s second and clearly comprehensive triumph entirely changes the way we must think about our continent’s security. This victory will require higher spending and deft diplomacy. One early result is that the EU is adjusting its cohesion budget to release many billions to defence and security. This is the
The world watches with deep anxiety how Israel will respond to the 200 ballistic missiles launched at it from Iran on Tuesday night. In April a similar attack, mounted by hundreds of drones, was launched in response to an Israeli strike near to the Iranian consulate in Syria. What followed
Penge, Paris, and Southport were linked by recent hostile Russian actions. A Russian criminal cyberattack badly disrupted blood services in Penge and south east London. It is likely, though unconfirmed, that Russian saboteurs or proxies attacked railways to disrupt the Paris Olympics. Russian bots and state backed media certainly amplified
To paraphrase Trotsky, you may not be interested in foreign policy, but foreign policy is interested in you. National security will be an issue in the general election but thankfully Corbyn’s ambiguities have been muscled out by a tough-minded Labour approach including securonomics. We live in an age of crisis,
A senior diplomat once told me in fluent Yes Minister mandarin that countries encouraging the Irish Republic to join the Commonwealth should do so alphabetically. In short, there was little chance of the UK as the old imperial power being heeded. The impetus in the 1990s for Ireland rejoining the
