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Brown's Declaration Of Interdependence
For some reason the British media saw fit to ignore the keynote foreign policy speech Gordon Brown delivered at the John F Kennedy Presidential Library in Boston last month.
In the speech, the Prime Minister gave hints as to the future foreign policy of the UK, implying that the US too should join in its great endeavour to respond to global challenges by investing in international bodies. US critics have condemned Brown's speech as an attack on US sovereignty on a par with King George III's imperiousness.
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Fogh Off
Blairovision in tatters as govts look to Danish PM for EU President
Tony Blair's candidacy for the Presidency of the European Union seems dead before it got off the ground. France's President Nicolas Sarkozy, who stunned fellow leaders last year by nominating his good friend Tony to be the first EU President, now seems set to throw his weight behind Luxembourg PM Jean-Claude Juncker or current Commission President José Manuel Durao Barroso, reports from Paris say.
While both men have their supporters, neither holds much appeal for other EU nations, which is why speculation is coalescing around Denmark's charismatic centre-right leader Anders Fogh Rasmussen as a "compromise candidate."
On With Reform
Gordon Brown has had something of a battering from the British press in recent weeks. However, the local elections, which saw Labour lose hundreds of councils to the opposition Conservative Party, coupled with the defeat of Ken Livingstone by Boris Johnson in the race to become London's Mayor, was something of a wake-up call for Brown's allies in the left-leaning papers.
Not least, of course, because the Guardian campaigned strongly against Johnson and for the left-wing incumbent, Ken... the newspaper is still reeling from the rejection of its man by what it sees as the small-minded Daily Mail reading fascists who inhabit Greater London.
So, thwarted in the birthplace of multiculturalism, it's very quickly back to business as usual - Constitutional reform.
The Bear Necessities
As President Dmitry Medvedev is inaugurated, Russia is shaping up to be one of the major foreign policy issues facing Europe this decade.
Following on from yesterday's review of an investigation into the Litvinenko killing which took a more-or-less pro-Moscow line, we provide some balance in the shape of a much more critical overview of Vladimir Putin's legacy, this time from the Guardian.
Who Killed Litvinenko?
Was former KGB agent Alexander Litvinenko really murdered? The Russian died in London in 2006 apparently from poisoning with the radioactive isotope polonium-210. On his deathbed, Litvinenko told media that the order for his assassination had come from the Kremlin. The British government too blamed Moscow for what amounted to an act of nuclear terrorism on British soil.
From Chelsea To Israel
Tense times at the upper end of the British Premiership. Manchester United and Chelsea are vying for the title, while both clubs will be playing in the final of the Champions League in Moscow later in the month, the first time two UK sides have appeared together in Europe's top club event.
The Israeli manager of Chelsea FC Avram Grant knows that while (as Bill Shankly famously said) football is more than a matter of life and death, there are greater concerns.
Murphy's Law Explained
Human errors are often attributed to a momentary lack of concentration. But now a combined team of researchers in America, Britain, Germany and Norway have used an 'imaging machine' to test a group of volunteers as to why the most simple activities go wrong.
Lady Non-Drivers
In Saudi Arabia, a woman can buy a car but she is not allowed to drive it. It's true, some Saudi ladies can't help themselves getting behind the wheel. And there have been a few (unreported) accidents. (Driving lessons in Riyadh are more of of an imaginary concept).
Europe's Middle Classes Feel The Squeeze
Misery in France, declining expectations in Germany, anger in Britain
Soaring costs and stagnant wages have persuaded a generation of middle-class Europeans that they're unlikely to share the good life their parents enjoyed.
Newspapers across the continent have reported how spending power has declined across the social scale; however, they've concentrated on middle class thirtysomethings, who are feeling the pinch in a way their upbringing never led them to believe they would.
BBC Censors Christian Party
UK party The Christian Choice has filed papers at London's High Court in response to broadcasters the BBC and ITV instructing London Mayoral Candidate Alan Craig to censor his Party Election Broadcasts aired last Wednesday (23rd April).
On Craig's website, he says that the broadcasters demanded that he not criticise radical Islamist group, Tablighi Jamaat, over their plans to build Europe's biggest mosque next to the 2012 Olympics site in West Ham.
All The News That's Not Fit To Print
Recently, the prime minister of Slovakia, Robert Fico, has called some of his country's daily newspapers "prostitutes". This is the most coarse example of leaders of countries such as Bulgaria, Romania and Russia expressing hatred for what is termed a 'free press'. Basically there is worry at declining media freedom in Eastern Europe.
Big Mac
In the 1950s, a certain businessman by the name of Ray Kroc founded what has become a multi-billion-dollar, world-wide institution. It's name is McDonald's.
"The Most Right-Wing Man In Britain"
Hilarious profile of Sir Benjamin Slade in the weekend's Independent.
Sir Benjamin, who is childless, hopes to pass his ancient estate in trust to a distant relation. He has plans to turn this quest for a long-lost heir into a "reality TV" show; the Independent's hack investigates. Despite primly describing Sir Benjamin and his friends as "dinosaurs" the Indie can't help but publish his thoughts on every issue under the sun, from Lithuanian labourers to homosexual peacocks.
Creeping Sharia
A must-read article by Bruce Bawer in this season's City Journal shows how European nations are giving ground to the demands of far-right Islamists. The US experience isn't much better, as the mainstream media takes a softly-softly approach to extremists and academics who welcome a "separate but equal" version of sharia are praised.
Depressing but essential reading. Bawer is the author of While Europe Slept - How Radical Islam is Destroying the West from Within, a book some US readers have recommended to us; he reportedly moved to Europe having published an attack on fundamentalist Christianity in the US, only to discover that he and his partner had leapt out of the frying pan into the inferno. Melanie Philips has also recommended his work.
Failing To Protect Rights, Again
A Muslim convert to Christianity was warned that he and his family would be burnt out of their home by his former co-religionists. When he complained to British police, he was told he should move out and "stop being a crusader."
So much for the Human Rights Act.
Better To Die Than Be A Coward
The newly 'elected' Communist Party of Nepal (Maoists) do not like the elite soldiers known to all as 'The Gurkhas'. The deputy leader of the 'Maoists', Baburam Bhattarai, says: "Having the citizenship of Nepal and serving in a foreign army is totally unacceptable ... They are mercenaries".
Welcome to Manche Zone One
Territorial Integrity
Is England dying the death of 1,000 cuts?
Isn't a government supposed to control national borders? One could be forgiven for thinking that New Labour is allowing the country to fall away, piece by piece. Yesterday we looked at government proposals to surrender a large part of Norfolk to the sea rather than go to the expense of reinforcing sea walls. On St George's Day, the European Union's scheme to divide areas of England up into its "Atlantic Zone" and "Manche Region" along with northwest France raised its ugly head again.
And today, we read that an apparent majority of citizens of the English village of Audlem would prefer to be Welsh!
Government Logo Takes Matter In Hand
More from the "this government can get NOTHING right" files. A £14,000 design makeover for HM Treasury's Office of Government Commerce came up with a shiny new logo, which was promptly attached to mousemats, pens and official stationery.
Only later did chiefs see what was obvious to everyone else all along: That viewed vertically, the OGM looks rather different. Let's say it resembles a stick man making the gesture Tony Blair made famous in his Cambridge days.
See The Telegraph if you still don't get it.
Baby Boom A La Française
France now has the highest fertility rate in the European Union, rising from 1.66 to 2.0 babies per woman between 1993 and 2003. For generations the Republic of Ireland was top of the old European league table in terms of birth-rate. Now they have been relegated.
