Archive for the ‘World current affairs’ Category
10 shocking truths about gun violence
May 19th, 2015 by Roger Darlington
In a special feature in today’s “Guardian” newspaper, it is suggested that there are almost one billions guns around the world and that over a million around the globe are injured by guns each year. The most shocking situation is that in the United States: “The US has more guns per person than any other […]
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Remembering Syria’s suffering people and threatened heritage
May 17th, 2015 by Roger Darlington
In the spring of 2011, Vee and I had a holiday in Syria and Lebanon [for account of our visit, see here]. We crossed the border from one country to the other on 9 March 2011. Mass protests erupted on 15 March in Damascus and Aleppo, and spread in the following days to more cities, […]
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Should the North of England become part of Scotland?
May 16th, 2015 by Roger Darlington
Of course, it’s a crazy idea – but tens of thousands apparently support the bizarre notion as you can see here. I have relatives in Scotland, I was brought up in Manchester, and I live in London. I want to see a United Kingdom. Around the world, people think that redrawing boundaries solves political and […]
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Has the new Cold War already begun?
May 14th, 2015 by Roger Darlington
It seems that, for the Russians, it already has. In the West, we see the Russians as the aggressors: intervening militarily in Georgia and Ukraine, constantly testing the security defences of other European nations, and backing a president who seems to want to isolate his country more and more from international norms. Of course, the […]
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British general election (17): how did all the polls get it so wrong?
May 9th, 2015 by Roger Darlington
The failure of all the polls to predict the actual outcome of the General Election has rightly caused many questions to be asked. There is to be an inquiry commissioned by the British Polling Council into what went wrong. But this is a wider problem than Britain, In other countries, like the USA and Israel, […]
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How happy are people in your country? Check out where your nation comes in this list of 158.
April 27th, 2015 by Roger Darlington
For three years now, there has been an attempt to rank nations by how happy they are. In the latest report, the UK comes 21st, while the USA is 15th out of 158. It is noticeable that, all the top 13 countries, have small populations. Where does your country come in the list? Switzerland (7.587) […]
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Feeling for the people of Nepal
April 26th, 2015 by Roger Darlington
Nepal has suffered its worst earthquake in more than 80 years with at least 1,500 deaths. One always feels more acutely for the tribulations of a country, when one has actually been there. In 2003. Vee and I made a visit to Nepal, staying in the capital Kathmandu. We met some lovely people but the […]
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The crisis in the older democracies
April 25th, 2015 by Roger Darlington
Many of the trends that we have seen in recent British General Elections – such as lower turnout, differential turnout, less support for the established parties, more support for an extreme party, and greater volatility in the electorate – are common to several other older democracies in Europe and North America. I have written a […]
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When will Israel have a new government?
April 22nd, 2015 by Roger Darlington
If the opinion polls prove correct, following the General Election on 7 May, British voters might be waiting some time before they learn who is to form the next Government and on what basis. Meanwhile, spare a thought for Israeli voters. They went to the polls on 17 March but, more than a month later, […]
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Which are the world’s most religious countries?
April 13th, 2015 by Roger Darlington
The UK is among the least religious countries in the world, according to a new survey. In a global ranking of 65 countries, the UK came six places from last, with 30% of the population calling themselves religious. While 53% of people said they were not religious, only 13% said they were a convinced atheist […]
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