Archive for the ‘World current affairs’ Category
Has anyone actually read the Chilcot Report?
July 8th, 2016 by Roger Darlington
The Chilcot Report on the invasion of Iraq consists of 12 volumes adding up to some 2.6 million words. Even the Executive Summary runs to 145 pages. According to an item in the “Guardian” newspaper, on average people read about 250 words a minute so, on that estimate, it would take 10,400 minutes or about […]
Posted in British current affairs, World current affairs | Comments (0)
What Alastair Campbell has to say about the Chilcot Inquiry on the Iraq War
July 7th, 2016 by Roger Darlington
If ever the word tragedy was appropriate, it applies in spades to the whole experience of the Iraq War. It is too simple to view the actions of British politicians and officials – especially Tony Blair – as the acts of evil men. Enormous mistakes were made but essentially they were made by people who […]
Posted in British current affairs, World current affairs | Comments (0)
Britain is not the only country in political chaos – have a look at Spain
June 28th, 2016 by Roger Darlington
In Britain, we are about to see a new leader of the Conservative Party which means a new Prime Minister. Some months later, we might have a general election which could conceivably result in yet another Prime Minister. Meanwhile, in sunny Spain, they had an election in December when the Prime Minister’s party won the […]
Posted in World current affairs | Comments (0)
Where is the ‘Windsor hum’ coming from?
June 11th, 2016 by Roger Darlington
In the summer of 1966, I was 18 and had just finished secondary school. I was selected, with a group of other British schoolboys, to make an educational tour of eastern Canada. It lasted about month with a week-long sailing from Liverpool to Montreal and a return week-long sailing from Montreal to Southampton. In Canada, […]
Posted in World current affairs | Comments (0)
U.S. presidential election (28): Hillary makes history
June 9th, 2016 by Roger Darlington
Say what you like about Hillary Clinton – and she’s had an extraordinary amount of criticism (most of it undeserved) – but that woman has resilience. Eight years after conceding defeat to Barack Obama at the end of one set of Democratic primaries and after a bruising further set of primaries in which Sanders has […]
Posted in American current affairs, World current affairs | Comments (0)
The Arab Spring (4): where and why did it fail?
June 9th, 2016 by Roger Darlington
Last weekend, I attended the first a number of short courses that I will be attending this summer at the City Literary Institute in central London. The title was “The Arab Spring” and the lecturer was Dr James Chiriyankandath of the School of Advanced Study in the University of London. Regimes fell in Tunisia, Libya, […]
Posted in History, World current affairs | Comments (0)
The Arab Spring (3): where did regimes change?
June 8th, 2016 by Roger Darlington
At the weekend, I attended the first a number of short courses that I will be attending this summer at the City Literary Institute in central London. The title was “The Arab Spring” and the lecturer was Dr James Chiriyankandath of the School of Advanced Study in the University of London. Out of all the […]
Posted in History, World current affairs | Comments (0)
The Arab Spring (2): why did it happen?
June 7th, 2016 by Roger Darlington
At the weekend, I attended the first a number of short courses that I will be attending this summer at the City Literary Institute in central London. The title was “The Arab Spring” and the lecturer was Dr James Chiriyankandath of the School of Advanced Study in the University of London. Having discussed the naming of […]
Posted in History, World current affairs | Comments (0)
The Arab Spring (1): why was it called that?
June 6th, 2016 by Roger Darlington
This weekend, I attended the first a number of short courses that I will be attending this summer at the City Literary Institute in central London. The title was “The Arab Spring” and the lecturer was Dr James Chiriyankandath of the School of Advanced Study in the University of London. It was a comprehensive day […]
Posted in History, World current affairs | Comments (0)
What is it like to be a practicing Muslim at Ramadan?
June 4th, 2016 by Roger Darlington
If you’re a practising Muslim, you’ll be preparing for the start of the month-long Ramadan which this year is expected to begin on Monday. If you’re not a Muslim, you probably have little idea what is involved. This is because so much media coverage of Islam is about the small number of fundamentalists and not […]
Posted in World current affairs | Comments (0)