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BLOGS
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Nadhim Zahawi
:Irresponsible Bankers Should Be Jailed
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Eleanor Blatchley
:Human Rights, Hashtags and the UK's Policy Towards Central Asia
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Natalie Bennett
:Media Reform: Time to Go Back to Leveson
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James Snell
:Prism: Who Cares?
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Alex Ford
:Talking to the Taliban in Afghanistan Doesn't Betray the Dead - It Honours Them
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If you have something to say...
Say it on the Huffington Post
If you have something to say...
Say it on the Huffington Post
It was a sad, much-mourned, death, greeted with glum faces all round in the Westminster Village that day. A new ministerial code, announced on 15 July, 2011, effectively declared that decades of 'unattributable' boozy lunches and 'off-the-record' slap-up dinners between politicians and the press were to be no more.
Out of a global population of some seven billion people, 50% of us are women. The world's women represent 40% of the workforce and are over 50% of the world's university students. Despite this significant contribution, women continue to face many formal and informal barriers that hinder their potential.
I am making another comparison in support of the campaign for the UK and the wider international community to recognise other events that finished 24 years ago: the genocide against the Iraqi Kurds which began in 1963 and culminated in the use of weapons of mass destruction, most notoriously at Halabja in 1988.
The Benghazi killings are a call to action both to religious leaders and to organisations like the Tony Blair Faith Foundation who believe there is another potent message and that what young people learn about faith and religion matters, and that we walk away from this challenge at our peril.
Today marks the eleventh anniversary of the 9/11 attacks. Eleven years ago, on this very day, al-Qaeda terrorists hijacked planes and flew them into b...
Archbishop Desmond Tutu's views of Tony Blair and the Iraq war are not new. Very little is in the debate between those who supported intervention in Iraq and those who opposed it.
It would be difficult to overestimate the impact of Archbishop Desmond Tutu's decision to refuse to share a platform with Tony Blair at a leadership summit in South Africa recently, citing the ex-British prime minister's role as one of the author's of the war in Iraq. As if this isn't enough, the retired archbishop called for both Tony Blair and George W Bush to be held accountable for the devastation and deaths that resulted at the International Criminal Court (ICC) in The Hague.
The waging of war cannot simply apply morals whilst choosing to ignore the rule of law. With Iraq there remains a strong case that there was no jus ad bellum - right to war - and thus any decision to proceed to war would be without a legal basis.
In any society, entrepreneurs are brave pioneers, taking risks and working hard to break barriers. In Nigeria, it's inspiring to see so many entrepreneurs starting up new businesses in the face of challenges such as unreliable electricity, inadequate infrastructure and insufficient small business investment.
Anyone who follows British politics could not have failed to notice the re-emergence of Tony Blair in recent months. He has hit the headlines for defending the Games, for speaking out on the West's ignorance to Islamic extremism and for his take on the hysteria over bankers.
Over the past few days I've lost count of the number of politicians decrying critics of the Olympics. Labour's newly appointed 'Olympic Legacy Adviser' Tony Blair has returned to one of his favourite themes, declaring war on cynicism.
Because of the Olympic Games, London has gone into full martial law lock-down. Never before in peace-time has the capital city of the formerly Great Britain seen such a military 'defensive' presence.
Three general election victories later (and five years after he left Downing Street), Tony Blair's influence continues to be felt across the political landscape. The current generation of politicians are defined, either favourably or unfavourably, against Blair.
In the olden days, not so long ago, heads of states used to look older, wiser, indomitable and even formidable. These days a G8 summit photo has many baby faces of leaders who don't have a clue of not only how to deal with the Euro crisis but even of the price of milk they still drink.
I suppose the measure of any successful writer is to spark a reaction. To that end, I found myself muttering at my iPhone as I read Mehdi Hasan's polemic against Blair's return.
Why is the Labour leader joining Tony Blair for a high-profile charity event at the Emirates Stadium this evening? Why has he allowed Blairites to brief that their hero is a close adviser and mentor to Miliband?
