UK politics

The Neocons Speak: Afghanistan as Political Real Estate

When the tears dry, it is worth considering why there is so much upset about the fall of Kabul (or reconquest) by the Taliban and the messy withdrawal of US-led forces.  A large shield is employed: women, rights of the subject, education.  Remove the shield, and we are left with a simple equation of power […]
The post The Neocons Speak: Afghanistan as Political Real Estate first appeared on Dissident Voice.

Global Britain Slashes International Aid

Decisions on aid are eroding trust and eroding relationships between the UK and developing countries. — Abby Baldoumas, Financial Times, July 15, 2021 Politics is not merely the art of the possible but the pursuit of concerted hypocrisy.  When it comes to that matter of funding good causes – foreign aid, for instance – wealthy […]
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Craig Murray’s jailing is the national security state’s latest assault on independent journalism

Former British diplomat and independent journalist Craig Murray is the first person imprisoned in the UK over media contempt in 50 years. This article was originally published at Jonathan Cook’s blog. Craig Murray, a former ambassador to Uzbekistan, the father of a newborn child, a man in very poor health and one who has no prior convictions, will have to hand himself over to the Scottish police on Sunday morning. He becomes the first person ever to be imprisoned on […]

Clinching in the Breach: Matt Hancock Resigns

From his secure fortress of contented spite, Dominic Cummings, exiled from the power he once wielded at Number 10 as one of the chosen, must have felt a sense of satisfaction.  Biliously, the former top aide to UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson had scorned the now former UK Health Secretary in a performance before MPs […]
The post Clinching in the Breach: Matt Hancock Resigns first appeared on Dissident Voice.

Laying the Bear Trap: Orbán visits No 10 Downing Street

His comments would not have fallen on deaf ears.  While metropolitan London would have been aghast at his pedigree and remarks, a Brexit-audience in the rustbelts and areas of deprivation, would have felt a twang of appreciation.  For them, migration has not been a boon and glory.  For Hungary’s Viktor Orbán, it has been an […]
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The Dominic Cummings Show

The former chief strategist for Prime Minister Boris Johnson was in a stroppy mood before the UK parliamentary Health and Science committee.  For seven hours, Cummings unleashed salvo after salvo against his former boss and the government coronavirus response. Boiling down some points of the Cummings show: there was a failure on the part of […]
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Dominic Cummings is our Machiavelli: with Brexit, lies served him, now the truth does

Remember how Dominic Cummings played a blinder over Brexit, spinning a web of deceptions, funnelled through politicians and the media, to persuade the public that Britain needed to quit the European Union so urgently it should do so on any terms, even ones that would sabotage the country’s interests. Well, he just did a Brexit […]

Ignore Starmer’s moral posturing: He’s the one we should blame for stoking antisemitism

No one should be surprised that Britain’s rightwing prime minister, Boris Johnson, has had barely anything to say about Israel’s pummelling of Gaza, with nearly 200 Palestinians reported to have been killed by airstrikes and many hundreds more seriously wounded. Nor should we be surprised that Johnson has had nothing to say about the fact […]

Crashing Out in Hartlepool: Labour Ills and Teflon Boris

By-election results make poor predictors.  The government of the day can often count on a swing against it by irritated voters keen to remind it they exist.  It’s an opportunity to mete out mild punishment.  But the loss of the seat in Hartlepool by the British Labour party is ominous for party apparatchiks.  For the […]
The post Crashing Out in Hartlepool: Labour Ills and Teflon Boris first appeared on Dissident Voice.

Boris Johnson’s lies don’t harm him because the political system is more corrupt than he is

Britain’s corporate media are suddenly awash with stories wondering whether, or to what extent, the UK’s prime minister is dishonest. Predictably in the midst of this, the BBC’s Laura Kuenssberg is still doing her determined best to act as media bodyguard to Boris Johnson. In a lengthy article on the BBC’s website over the weekend, […]