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Peter Kellner
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Deborah Jack
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Philip Mansbridge
:G8 or Too Late: Obama, Cameron and G8 Heads Must Tackle Ivory Poaching Crisis Now
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European Parliament Web Team
:Homophobia: One-In-Four LGBT People Victim of Violence or Threats in the Last Five Years
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Neil Durkin
:A Week's Delay Should Suffice: Is the UK Still Dragging Its Feet on Guantánamo?
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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
The potentiality, and perhaps inevitably, of 2013 proving one of the most socially convulsive and ugly in Britain's social history is very real.
Although it has been gaining in terms of publicity and exposure, that means scrutiny will increase of Ukip's actual policies. On some issues it no doubt is able to chime with popular sentiment, on Europe and on immigration, for example. However, on social issues like gay marriage all the indications are that it is out-of-step with mainstream opinion.
One can see that if you want to create a bubble economy that enriches the banks, but starves the wealth creating sector, you would be hard put to devise a better system. The bursting of the bubble becomes inevitable, leading to the misery and ruin of millions of lives.
We need to open the debate up further and to talk more openly. We already understand how low body confidence can affect 15 year old girls. But what happens when those 15 year old girls reach 25, 35, and 45? How does their low body confidence translate into social confidence? How does it affect their performance in the workplace? How does it affect their families? The government is already doing a lot to support women, but we also need to ensure that we can nurture and support the aspirations of women and girls.
It is clear that austerity isn't working, and it is clear that making it easier to sack people and harder for disabled people to live independently, is no kind of cure for our sick economy. Instead of these policies of despair and division we need investment in our economy and our public services to create jobs and opportunities to help our communities, and to support people who need it.
Nick Clegg's speech yesterday at the Royal Commonwealth Society has left me baffled. He claims to position the Liberal Democrats as "governing from the centre ground". If only. Instead, the area he has chosen to occupy, is a bizarre electoral wasteland where few voters exist.
When did it become such a shameful thing to be pro-European and proud in this country? Why do politicians who sing the praises of Britain's membership of the EU in private, retreat in to the shadows in public? Why do the most vocal defenders of Europe's greatest ever achievement warn only of the dangers of withdrawal rather than share their vision of a united and prosperous union with Britain at its heart?
Vince Cable's announcement that small businesses are to be awarded £110 million of funding is nothing new. It was essentially a re-announcement, disguised as an announcement, and just a note on who got the money. Disingenuous to say the least!
Proper recognition of Palestine by the UN General Assembly is not the same as peace in the Middle East, but it is a step on the road. Peace can only come from negotiations between the parties and international agreements.
It is only recently that I have begun to fully appreciate just how deep people's cynicism in politics actually goes. The vast majority of my friends a...
Conservative eurosceptics and Labour tacticians should beware. British hostility to the European Union is not as simple or complete as some of them think.
I'd love to paint a different picture than the one I'm going to paint. However, in the last few months it has become abundantly clear that the governm...
Is the EU perfect? No. There are no systems of government that are. Problems are only emphasised when trying to reconcile 27 different cultural, legal and political systems. There have been, and there will be, things given up in the task of creating a 'more perfect union'. The prize is immense.
We are now mid-way through this parliament and it seems that all is to play for at the next election.
In my opinion, Israel is a rogue state which commits war crimes. It is an aggressor state that has invaded Lebanon several times and holds a chunk of Syria illegally, but despite being the fourth most-heavily-armed country in the world has not won a war outright for 45 years, since 1967.
Young people have a huge amount at stake when it comes to policing and criminal justice issues and until we effectively bring them into the debate many of the issues we currently see will remain.
