The Balkan Legacy  Winston Churchill supposedly posited that the Balkans produced far too much history for it to be accurately consumed, largely echoing the typical “orientalism” rhetoric that Edward Said aptly pronounced as the ignorance many in the West have of anything the wrong side of Rome. Once more, Western nations have made a deep folly in not fully appreciating the precariousness of the peace following the Homeland War of the 1990s  in the former Yugoslavia. Througho

As 2026 commences, how ready is the world of journalism for the next quarter century of the 21 st  century? With social media gaining traction in the 2010’s, it’s safe to say the online world has well and truly exploded in the 2020’s. TikTok, Instagram, Facebook and X are all pillars of communication, information gathering and self-expression; should they have been given the authoritative voice they now have? The current social media-sphere is many worlds away from the World

Ahead of the 2026 Scottish Parliamentary elections, Frederick Graham examines eighteen years of Scottish Nationalist rule and the state of Scottish politics.  In Westminster and Europe, recent election cycles have revealed an increasingly consistent pattern: governing parties have become exposed to sharp electoral punishment. This trend has cut across ideologies. After four years the centre-left “traffic-light” German coalition was decisively punished at the ballot box. Acros

The second half of the decade begins with a political map in Latin America radically different from the one that marked its early years. The region enters 2026 undergoing a clear shift to the right , with political forces that have not only consolidated their power but have done so with greater ideological discourse and ambition for power than in previous cycles. During 2025, the right wing won all four presidential elections held in the region - Ecuador , Bolivia , Chile , a

The Starmer project was supposed to last a decade, it might not make it to the spring. Despite having one of the largest majorities in parliamentary history, the political project Starmer leads is so brittle it could snap at any moment . How on earth did a man with a majority of 172 seats lead this political project towards near certain disaster in just over a year?  The answer, or at least one of them, lies at the very heart of the Starmer project and how it was constructed.

In his Debt: The First 5000 Years , anthropologist David Graeber provides a series of insights that, when properly understood, challenge the central tenets of conventional economic thought. Most significantly, Graeber’s claim that all money is debt, and by extension a social relation, fundamentally undermines decades of economic orthodoxy which claims that the government must balance its books and, more generally, that ‘one must pay one’s debts’ . Indeed, if all money is debt

Whilst the Labour Government is being hounded from outside and torn apart from inside, the Tories, who should surely be revelling in such red dismay, are largely excluded from the debate; all heads are turning, whether it’s mainstream media or twitter bubbles, to what Reform have to say. Farage has been bullying the Tories for longer than I can remember, but this is the first time that he and his party of charlatans is squatting in the centre-right voter base that the Tories

To Have or To Be?  turns fifty in a few days. Written by Erich Fromm, a German social psychologist, it analysed the corrosivity of ‘late capitalism’, an epoch most obviously characterised by consumerism. Consumerism comes with constituent attitudes. It encourages us, for instance, to value assets based on their saleability. Entrenched in our consciousness, via the unconscious, Fromm argued that many of these attitudes altered our understanding of ourselves, our contemporaries

Over the summer, Britain’s shocking disparity in education was laid bare, as circa 40% of students failed their maths  and English GCSEs, the worst-performing region being the West Midlands. Despite being the third-largest spending area ( behind only welfare and the NHS ), the UK’s education system is another public service in crisis. Following years of austerity, the lasting effects of COVID-19, and the punishing cost of living crisis, students across all years face the burd

Steamrolling towards the 2010 General Election, and needing to recoup votes lost to David Cameron’s Conservatives and ‘ Cleggmania ’, Prime Minister Gordon Brown headed to Rochdale to engage with Joe Public. Unfortunately for him, it all ended up going awry, as Brown ended up committing a political gaffe of the ages following his televised conversation with 66-year-old Gillian Duffy. The exchange  touched on pensions, university tuition, and immigration, as well as other topi

The political classes are being held responsible, academically and in actuality, for the rise of populism. Their failure to create the conditions for growth, apparent disdain for popular opinion, and inability to abide by professional standards have undoubtedly increased the public’s appetite for an alternative type of politician. Do we, however, expect too much of our politicians and do they, in fact, need to better explain what exactly it is that they are supposed to do? Be

The Republic of Moldova, a small country situated between the EU and Russia, has long been vulnerable because of its heavy reliance on Russian-controlled energy infrastructure. The war in Ukraine and the 2025 Russian gas cutoff exposed this serious vulnerability. Responding to these challenges, the pro-EU Moldovan government has taken strong measures towards energy diversification and integration into the EU energy system. This article examines how Moldova is reducing its rel

On the 5th of December Donald Trump’s second National Security strategy was released to little fanfare, nevertheless precipitating great global alarm, not least in Europe, as it appears to promote an archaic vision of a world once again carved up for consumption by superpowers.  This National Security Strategy is very streamlined, at only 29 pages, compared to  Trump’s 55-page 2017 equivalent. It even describes these old strategies as ‘ bloated and unfocused.’  This reflects

As more photos were released by House Democrats just a day before the 19 th  December deadline, the enigma that is Jeffrey Epstein still sends shockwaves around the world. With the stripping of Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor’s princehood  to the October release of Virginia Giuffre’s posthumous memoir ‘ Nobody’s Girl ’, there has been even further pressure aimed at political leaders to expose the full extent of the Epstein files. Last month, Trump signed the Epstein Files Transpar

As the Prime Minister looks to inaugurate a “new era” in his country’s relationship with Europe , his task is not only to repair pre-existing bonds, but also to open new avenues that support his ambitions for greater British influence abroad and economic growth at home. In this context, the South Caucasus – comprising Armenia, Azerbaijan and Georgia – deserves far more attention than it has traditionally received in Westminster.   While famously chequered, the UK’s relationsh

One of the newest episodes of the revived TV show Spitting Image , a stalwart of 1990s political commentary, made a parody of Home Alone . Instead of Kevin, it was Keir  being left in Downing Street all by himself. The goons were replaced by Nigel Farage trying to break in. To be fair, he might have been coming to take a look at his next gaff.  The episode asked a powerful question. How is it that a Prime Minister, elected with a landslide, is now a mockery, polling as the mo

On the thirteenth anniversary of the Syrian Revolution, which began in March 2011, Syrian politics entered a new era with the overthrow of Bashar al-Assad in December 2024. Following the completion of the Syrian Revolution with the overthrow of Assad, at the end of the first year (December 2025), the new Sunni central authority established in Damascus by the Transitional Government led by Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS) is attempting to shape the country's future. While the Transi

Almost a year into his second term as President of the United States, and Donald Trump’s promise  to bring peace to an unstable world seems to have been almost completely forgotten by the administration. His progress on a peace deal between Russia and Ukraine has so far been mired with difficulties, with both nations refusing  to agree on what they feel are unjust compromises and the absence  of security guarantees. In the Middle East, the perceived success of Trump’s Gaza pe

Like Barbie, Trump has a great day every day. And who wouldn’t?! Waking up in his golden Dreamhouse (ballrooms sold separately), Trump gets to decide his truth, the truth, on any given matter at any given time! In Trump Land anything can happen!  The latest from Trump Land is that the American economy has never ever been better! Kicking off the battle for the 2026 midterm elections at a rally in north-east Pennsylvania – his first in five months – Trump united the crowd behin

Since Labour reclaimed power last summer, the Chancellor, Rachel Reeves, has borne the brunt of much of the criticism directed towards the government. The decisions to scrap  winter fuel payments  and  inheritance tax exemptions on  farms struck deep; this was an electorate unprepared for such change and a media that underestimated the UK’s first female occupant of the role being so combative right from the onset.  This front-footedness prompted a swift response. Hacks bayed