The Mirror Crack'd

After spiralling down the 'nothing works' doomloop for the past fourteen years it's easy to imagine, when suddenly something does, that it must be a fluke. As a Labour voter (albeit often a reluctant one) I'd like to believe that the government I voted for really is swinging into action to fix broken Britain. Maybe it is - although Labour has been criticised for making a slow start - but, after only four months in power, can it really be the case that things are turning round already?   Maybe recent positive signs indicating this are merely coincidental? Only time will tell but here's something I've experienced in just the past fortnight or so that seems to offer a glimmer of hope. Like millions of other Brits since the Pandemic I've been frustrated by the sheer dogged persistence required to get a face-to-face appointment with a GP. The '8am scramble' has been an irritant for so long that it was almost a shock to receive a text out of the blue recen

The general election in Georgia on Saturday returned the Georgian Dream (GD) party to power for its fourth successive term. A tad suspicious maybe? Well,  Georgia’s pro-EU president, Salome Zourabichvili, certainly smelled a rat, declaring that she did not recognise the results, asserting that the country had fallen victim to a “Russian special operation”. She went further,  calling on Georgians to protest against the results this evening. “This was a total rigging, a total robbery of your votes” she added, for the removal of any doubt as to her true feelings on the subject. Since gaining its independence from Russia in 1991, following the collapse of the Soviet Empire, Georgia has never managed to fully break free of the Russian sphere of influence, especially under the leadership of Vladimir Putin. Despite recent attempts to persuade Georgians to opt for joining the EU, including massive protests against GD's Russophile stance, the election appears to have vindicated GD. But, as

As the 1000th day of war in Ukraine approaches, their Lordships' House debated the issues, including the role of the North Atlantic Treaty Organisation (NATO) and a recalibration of international power dynamics. In an excellent, wide-ranging, well-informed debate, some thirty-plus peers rose to speak. A lot of attention, inevitably, was focused on the aggressor, the Russian President, Vladimir Putin. However, Lord Campbell-Savours (Lab) warned that the West should never underestimate Russia's fear of an external threat posed by NATO's proximity to its borders. Whether this is a fear genuinely shared by Putin or cynically exploited by him in order to keep his people complaisant remains unclear. Lord Craig of Radley, a Crossbench (ie independent) peer, also spoke about the perception of a threat from NATO by Russia. He likened this to a secret "Article 5A" of the North Atlantic Treaty. Article 5 famously reads 'an attack on one is an attack on all' but Russi

As Joe Biden arrived in Germany for a valedictory visit, King Charles III touched down in Australia - what's going on? Australia's Prime Minister, Anthony Albanese, an avowed republican, is doubtless hoping Charles' arrival in Sydney for his first visit as Monarch will also be his last in that capacity. Given the care that has been taken to limit Charles' itinerary and allow him plenty of opportunity to rest up while undergoing cancer treatment, this visit, at age 75, may well be his final one. Charles and Camilla are not getting any younger and an almost 24-hour flight via Singapore, albeit in luxurious conditions, would be taxing at any age. Removing Charles, his heirs and successors as Australia's Head of State could take some time yet, however. Old habits die hard but this trip could prove decisive in settling the matter once and for all. The stakes are very high for both parties. For 81 year-old Biden, his trip to Berlin is all about legacy. The ostensible reas

With everything else going on in the world right now spending half a day of valuable government time in the House of Commons yesterday debating a relatively minor reform of the House of Lords might seem a self-indulgence. Well, removing the remaining hereditary peers from the Upper House was in the Labour Party election manifesto so it seemed a perfectly legitimate debate to have. However, many speakers debating the second reading of the House of Lords (Hereditary Peers) Bill questioned whether it might have made more sense for the government to bring forward a substantive abolition motion rather than what was dismissed by some as mere tinkering.  A suspicion was voiced that the bigger issue of abolition would be kicked into the long grass. (Surely not!) For its part, the government responded that as the reform process would inevitably be a lengthy one it had to start somewhere, and where better than with the indefensible retention of the ninety-two hereditary peers decades after refo

Storm Berenice dumped a load of water on Madrid earlier today and the timing could hardly have been more apposite. Celebrations were being held to mark Fiesta Nacional España (Spanish National Day), with a full military parade attended by King Felipe VI, Queen Letizia, Leonora, Princess of Asturias, the Prime Minister and a host of politicians. Unfortunately, it rained on their parade. In British terms the ceremony is a cross between Trooping the Colour and Remembrance Sunday, with full royal and military panoply, but is much more problematic than either of those occasions. The British equivalents are not without their controversies, of course, but the Spanish event, a relatively modern successor (2019) to the original Día de la Hispanidad (Hispanic Day) held to mark the arrival of Columbus in the Americas on 12 October 1492, carries with it a lot of colonial baggage. Columbus Day is still marked in the USA but, with civic statues of Christopher Columbus increasingly becoming the focus

Today, 7th October 2024, marks the first anniversary of Hamas' shock attack on the Nova Music Festival in Israel, as a result of which 1,200 Israeli civilians were massacred and some 250 taken hostage. In the intervening year the situation has deteriorated to the point where an all-out regional conflict appears not merely likely but almost inevitable. This is why the world now looks on with bated breath to see how the Israeli government will respond on the anniversary of the attack, with a major assault on Iran expected imminently. While the Pentagon in Washington has supported Israel in intercepting missiles fired into the country recently by Iran, President Joe Biden has warned Israeli Prime Minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, against attempting a retaliatory strike on Iran's nuclear facilities. Indeed, for an Israeli strike to successfully penetrate those targets, buried deep underground, it would require large US bombers to deliver massive American-made GBU-57A/B bombs weighing 1

We often hear about the importance of 'the Jewish vote' in US elections and its influence on America's Middle-East policy stance, but what does it actually mean in practice? 'The Jewish vote' (loosely defined) constitutes around 2% of the US electorate but punches disproportionately above its weight due to its active engagement in the democratic process. This means all US politicians ignore its influence at their peril but, collectively, its vote has gone substantially to the Democratic Party for generations and the 2024 Presidential election looks set to be no exception. It tends to be a more progressive voting cohort and the latest polls show some 68% of Jewish voters favouring Kamala Harris, with 25% planning to support Donald Trump.  This broadly follows the long-established voting pattern and the growing conflict in Gaza, the West Bank and Lebanon, with the very real danger of a widening conflict in the region, seems not to have moved the dial. Or not yet at le

News of a new film adaptation of Wuthering Heights directed by Emerald Fennell (of Saltburn fame) led me to re-read Emily Brontë's classic novel. It brought back many memories. I was raised close to 'Brontë Country' in the 1960s when that area of the West Riding of Yorkshire (as it still was then) remained very much as the Brontës would have known it: remote, bleak, inaccessible and inhospitable. Today, while the moors, apart from a few jarring wind turbines, remain as ruggedly magnificent as ever, the gaunt 17th and 18th century millstone grit farmhouses have been transformed. Fifty years ago, their cold, stone-flagged floors, rattling sash windows and smoking chimneys made comfort hard to find. Only the main living room, t' house in dialect (in Brontë's text as in my youth), had a constantly-burning range, while rag rugs helped keep the chill off our feet. Almost all have been modernised, if not outright suburbanised. Paved driveways, landscaped gardens, double