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Tha Arab Summer

The self-immolation of Tunisian, Mohamed Bouazizi, on 17 December 2010 triggered the Arab Spring. The 26 year-old street vendor was driven to take his own life in such a horrific fashion out of despair at his experience of grinding poverty and relentless police harrassment. His death caused a wave of anger and revulsion amongst the Tunisian population and, on 14 January 2011, the country's President, Zine El Abidine Ben Ali, was forced to step down and fled into exile. The unrest spread throughout the Arab world, triggering the overthrow of several despotic regimes and seeming to hold out the prospect of widespread democratisation. Sadly, but perhaps predictably, the movement was stifled through a combination of vicious state crackdowns and Western unwillingness to upset the status quo in a strategically critical region. A combination of self-interest, complicity and indifference on the part of Western powers effectively stifled the movement and, in 2012, the uprising was over. The...
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Together We Thrive

The 23rd Commonwealth Games opened tonight in Glasgow under this inspiring, if contentious, motto. You could be forgiven for not noticing, given its low profile, but it used to be a big deal. The British Empire Games began in 1930, becoming the British Empire and Commonwealth Games in 1950 before finally settling on its current name in 1966. Just through its changing titles it's possible to chart the evolving story over the years, not just of the sporting fixture itself but of British imperialism and colonialism. The pared-down, scaled-back nature of this year's Games compared with those last held in the Scottish city in 2014 seems to suggest a faltering present and an uncertain future. Three Games were to have been held in Victoria, Australia, but in 2023 the state government announced it was pulling out on cost grounds so Glasgow came to the rescue and the King, Queen and Prime Minister will be there at tonight's opening ceremony. The suspicion must be that Australia, a s...
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Drill, maybe, drill

It looks like one of the first decisions Andy Burnham will be making on Monday will involve energy supply. On arriving in Downing Street having 'kissed hands' with the King he will face the serried ranks of press and media assembled on a specially constructed grandstand to cover his totemic moment behind the lectern. It's not clear if he will be taking questions but, depending on how his speech is received, it could easily be downhill all the way after that. I wish him well because this performance could make or break his premiership. Presumably by Monday morning he will have finalised his Cabinet choices, the two major ones at this particular juncture being Chancellor and Energy Secretary, with the most hotly-tipped candidates being Ed Milliband and Shabana Mahmood, interchangeably. In Sir Keir Starmer's Cabinet, Ed Milliband was Energy and Net Zero Secretary and Mahmood Home Secretary. With Milliband being the champion of renewable energy and net zero policies, this i...
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The man with the plan

As Andy Burnham addressed the Labour Party faithful today it was hard not to be swept up in the enthusiasm. Burnham's leadership acceptance speech at Congress House was, as expected, extremely upbeat and positive. It was impossible not to compare it with Keir Starmer's lacklustre efforts, which serially failed to motivate his party,  boost its flagging morale or secure his position. On the contrary, the more the membership heard from him, the more deflated their mood became and the less they trusted his leadership. No-one could begrudge Burnham his moment of elation today - although he deftly avoided triumphalism - but he would do well to bear in mind the old adage, fine words butter no parsnips. Talk is cheap but the difficult bit will be delivery - and time is not on his side.  In thirty months or so preparations should be getting underway for the next General Election - unless, that is, Burnham decides to go to the country early in the hope of being returned for another fiv...
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Don't cry for me Inglaterra

There's no place for politics in sport, right? Well, good luck with that one, especially where obscene amounts of money meets global TV coverage, as with (a random example off the top of my head) the FIFA World Cup™. Things got off to a good start when FIFA President, Gianni Infantino, presented Donald Trump with the specially-invented FIFA Peace Prize to mollify the US President for being snubbed over the Nobel version. It was all downhill from there, with Trump's successful intervention to secure the withdrawal of the red card - and thus one-match suspension - awarded against US player, Falorin Balogun, allowing him to play in the subsequent match against Belgium.  There was widespread schadenfreude when the US lost that match 4-1 but now the controversy has moved on to the actions of some Argentinian players after their victory over England in last night's match, when Lisandro Martinez and Giovanni Lo Celso were among those holding up a sheet bearing the words Las Malvin...
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The gods are not mocked - World Cup sketch

I wonder if Donald Trump will take time out of his busy (golfing) schedule to see Christopher Nolan's newly-released epic, The Odyssey? It seems unlikely (not enough car chases) but if he does he might learn something useful about hubris and nemesis following his disastrously brazen intervention in the Folarin Balogun red card debacle. Trump, a self-proclaimed leading expert on football fouls (despite admitting not knowing what a red card was), phoned his pal, FIFA president and Trump ass-licker-in-chief, Gianni Infantino (a White House insider was quoted as saying if he spent any more time in the Oval Office "they would have to start charging him rent"), to get the one-match ban on Balogun overturned after he fouled Bosnia and Herzegovina defender, Tarik Muharemovic, and got a straight red card from the Brazilian ref, Raphael Claus , for doing so. Trump, not widely known for caring about the welfare of young Black men, preferring to see them jailed, shot or deported by I...
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Let's hear it for The Boys

Like all foundational myths, 'the 4th of July' requires some qualification. The semi-quincentenary of the founding of the United States of America is marked today - a bittersweet occasion, especially under its current President - but the date is somewhat arbitrary. I hate to be pedantic (me?) but, while true that delegates of twelve of the Thirteen Colonies signed off the Declaration of Independence on 4th July 1776, the New York delegation abstained until receiving authorisation from their state capital, Albany, which came on 2nd August 1776. The Declaration proclaimed the Thirteen Colonies "free and independent States", no longer colonies of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and, thus, no longer part of the British Empire.  But this was only the beginning of a painfully protracted struggle to break free, not the end. Years of bloody battles and skirmishes followed, with the definitive peace treaty only signed, in Paris, on 3rd September 1783. Even then, this was n...
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