Hollande hit by National Front gains in France March 31, 2014 FRENCH President Francois Hollande suffered a humiliating blow in yesterday’s local elections, as his ruling Socialist party lost out to both its mainstream right-wing rival and to the National Front (FN). Results last night showed Marine Le Pen’s anti-immigration FN had added 10 town halls to its victory last week in Henin-Beaumont, while over 100 [...]
Globalisation isn’t keeping us safe – it’s blunting our punishment of Putin March 30, 2014 CALAMITIES often serve a useful purpose in foreign policy, overturning intellectual sacred cows that – until they so dramatically reveal themselves as unfit for purpose – pass for received wisdom. The long-held leftish shibboleth of interdependence presently seems ripe for the chopping block. This cherished nostrum declares that, since countries’ economic affairs are intertwined, mainstream [...]
Boris hits Twitter launching new yellow Barclays bikes and professing love for the Queen March 27, 2014 London’s favourite blonde bombshell took to Twitter this afternoon, with a new, grown-up profile pic, launching a yellow Barclays bike and answering questions from the Twittersphere. The canary-hued bikes, 101 of them to be exact, are to celebrate Le Tour de France’s British leg on 7 June (not because Barclays is ending its sponsorship – [...]
Farage tops poll against Clegg in debate over EU March 26, 2014 UKIP leader Nigel Farage triumphed in yesterday’s tussle with deputy prime minister Nick Clegg over the UK’s membership of the European Union, according to a YouGov poll. The hour-long TV and radio debate focused on the impact of the EU on areas as widespread as immigration, jobs, the European arrest warrant and the crisis in [...]
Trade deal must safeguard consumers, says Obama March 26, 2014 Barack Obama has been speaking this afternoon about the prospective trade deal between the US and EU, which would make it easier for the US to export gas to Europe. Having met with EU leaders in Brussels, the US president’s been addressing a news conference, trying to quell concerns he may support a transatlantic trade [...]
One Reddit user said Zuck was visiting Oculus’ offices a month ago – and everyone ignored him March 26, 2014 The latest addition to Mark Zuckerberg's Facebook empire has gotten many of Reddit's users very heated up. A part of the messageboard dedicated to Oculus Rift, which the social media giant announced it would be acquiring yesterday, is filled with anti-Facebook entries. Maybe that's why one user was ignored when he reported that the Facebook [...]
Why Western weakness stems from a failure to grasp Putin’s motives March 24, 2014 VLADIMIR Putin is having an easy time of it, precisely because the West is so at sea as to who he is and what he is trying to accomplish. The Russian President has painfully exposed our foreign policy elite’s schizophrenic tendencies, veering wildly between hysterical alarmism and useless gestures, both of which make the West [...]
Forget sanctions: Lame duck Obama is burying Pax Americana March 20, 2014 AS AN old DC hand living in Berlin, I was kindly invited to hear Barack Obama speak there in 2008 by some of my old foreign policy frenemies in the Democratic Party. I was present when candidate Obama’s white-hot global fame reached its apogee. In front of an old Napoleonic war memorial stood the anointed [...]
George Osborne has been picking up bad habits March 20, 2014 The Institute for Fiscal Studies (IFS) has given its assessment on the chancellor's Budget. The think tank says that George Osborne has become increasingly reliant on short-term revenue raising wheezes to pay for permanent tax cuts and spending commitments. For example, the changes announced yesterday on the abolition of taxing pension pot withdrawals, and accelerated [...]
Yellen says Fed may raise rates by spring 2015 March 19, 2014 THE Federal Reserve will probably end its massive bond-buying programme this coming autumn, and could start to raise interest rates around six months later, Fed chair Janet Yellen said yesterday. US stocks fell after the statement with the Dow closing 0.7 per cent lower at 16,222.17. The Fed had pledged not to raise rates until [...]