“It’s the most controversial World Cup in history and a ball hasn’t even been kicked.” Ever since FIFA chose Qatar back in 2010, the smallest nation to have hosted football’s greatest competition has faced some big questions. From accusations of corruption in the bidding process to the treatment of migrant workers who built the stadiums, […]
As US midterm election results are still coming in overnight, a myriad of thoughts/feelings are cascading in my brain right now…Did the democracy-defending Democratic party pull a rabbit out of hat throughout the US? I was imagining a decisive landslide, unlike the US mainstream and Murdoch-funded media. So many purple (mixed red Republican and blue […]
This is controversial, I know. I may have to take cover for posting this. However, in my view, some USA ‘rights’ are topsy-turvy. There is the right to bear arms, under the Second Amendment to the United States Constitution. Citizens have the right carry a gun that only has one mechanical function: to kill or maim. Consequently, […]
O beautiful for RemingtonFor Smith & Wesson, ColtFor rapid-fire assault weaponFor barrel, stock and bolt America! America!God gave thy guns to theeTo spill the blood that spreads its floodFrom sea to shining sea! O beautiful for massacreSo swiftly carried outBy terrorist or teenagerBy godless or devout America! America!God gave thy guns to theeTo spill the […]
I wrote to President Obama, in 2012, when the Sandy Hook elementary school massacre in Newtown CT was fresh in the news. My outrage and suggestions were all about gun control laws then. Second Amendment stuff. How can we allow these obstructionist lawmakers to continue? Stuff. I didn’t write again though. Not when shootings kept […]
Tomasz is our ‘resident’ Polish writer. We preserve his unique voice in this challenging, thought-provoking piece on the reality of Putin’s Russia and the implacability of evil. In the first days of this war I was really hoping it’s true, that this is just a madness of one man, that those poor boys were lied […]
The partner of one of our readers has gone to Poland to help with the effort to rescue refugees from Ukraine. He’s a field/trauma medic with extensive experience having served in Iraq and Afghanistan. He had intended to go straight into Ukraine to join extraction efforts, but the attack on the Ukraine military base has […]
As a Russian-speaking person of colour who was born and raised in Ukraine, I believe that I am in a position to speak on the issue of nationalism and neo-Nazism in Ukraine. To talk about Ukrainian nationalism, we first have to establish the context of the relationship between Ukraine and Russia. These are not just […]
If we continue to delude ourselves about Putin’s agenda, we will reap the whirlwind. Andrew Levi explains why we have to face up to what drives Putin in this hard-hitting article. Clueless in Europe’s Chancelleries You’ve probably never heard of Lars Klingbeil. If you have, you know more about German politics than most. He’s a […]
Being an inveterate reader of the online Spanish press, my attention was drawn recently to an article in El Mundo online which linked the Ukraine War of 2022 to the Falklands War of 1982… in the context of Boris Johnson. On the 40th anniversary of this conflict, this article is timely; is it really 40 […]
Yesterday (Wednesday 30 March) was an incredibly emotionally difficult day for me. My work partner and I were tasked to go to Lviv and extract two elderly people. We arrived in good time, without having to go through as many military road blocks. We checked into the aid centre and awaited our passengers. They were […]
Two recent articles by the Kremlin’s ‘grey cardinal‘, Vladislav Surkov, give disturbing insights into the thinking behind Russia’s aggression. If Putin has a soul, then Surkov is the engineer of that infernal machine. Joseph Stalin was in the habit of referring to writers as “the engineers of human souls”. A vital role, in the view […]
There is an extraordinary paradox at the heart of capitalist growth in rich economies, which is important to understand. Here’s how it works: First, capital seeks to privatise and enclose key goods that we need in order to live – healthcare, housing, energy, transport, etc – making these things increasingly expensive for us to access. […]
Usually in this notebook, my favourite one, with coffee on the cover, I write fairy tales. However, a new tale about adorable, winged cats has been paused uncompleted. Now I am writing about the war. To this day we all think it’s a dream. A nightmare that is about to pass, you just have to […]
“They slaughter and maim tens of thousands of men, and then they say prayers of thanksgiving for having slaughtered so many people (inflating the numbers) and proclaim victory, supposing that the more people slaughtered, the greater the merit. How does God look down and listen to them!“Leo Tolstoy, War and Peace Almost exactly 33 years […]
Already unpopular due to Brexit chaos, colossally corrupt covid contracts, ‘Partygate’, the raw sewage scandal and the cost-of-living crisis, our government is taking flak from all sides for its Kafkaesque response to the Ukrainian refugee crisis. Criticism is coming from the public, from a usually compliant press and even from some of its own back-bench […]
The government’s latest scheme to help Ukrainian refugees raises quite a number of concerns and even more questions. Yes, the UK needs to do something, but this really doesn’t seem like the answer based on the available information. After calls for the UK to move quickly and waive visas it may seem strange to criticise […]
Polish journalist and lorry-driver Tomasz Oryński translated this short piece about Ukrainian truckers who are still going into the war zone with humanitarian help. Originally written for a Polish trucking magazine, we are very glad to be able to publish Filip’s piece here. It carries this important message: “By the way, as I was talking […]
This article is a timely reminder of the politics of hate and division at a time when our own government moves to remove or dilute our human rights and as the Home Office goes through endless contortions to dehumanise and avoid helping the refugees from conflict in Ukraine, Afghanistan, Syria; and, of course, as Russia […]
Editor’s note: the original source was Christo Grozev of Bellingcat: Last night, an alleged FSB whistle-blower letter was published that damned Russia’s military performance in Ukraine and predicted a disaster for the RU in the next weeks and months. I wasn’t sure if it was authentic – as Ukraine had previously leaked fake FSB letters […]
The Conservatives should return the £2.3 million donated by wealthy Russians since Johnson came to power. Britain should be displaying strength in the face of Putin’s despicable actions in Ukraine. Whatever influence that money may or may not have bought for Putin, it makes our government look compromised and weak. If, as claimed, it secured […]
Dear Mr Stride I have been following your twitter feed with interest over the last couple of days and see nothing about Ukraine – neither support for refugees, nor any opinion on the rising crisis. [Mr Stride has now shared a selfie on Twitter of him signing the Book of Solidarity. Ed] The UK’s response […]
We have been given kind permission to reproduce this moving account of what Putin’s attempted invasion of Ukraine means for ordinary Russians. We have not edited or ‘corrected’ the text in the hope that you can hear the authentic voice of another human being, shocked and suffering under a madman’s regime. “I am horrified, I […]
Many of us were inspired and heartened when Poland threw open its borders to Ukrainians fleeing the war on February 25, only 24 hours after the present phase of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine began. (We say “the present phase”, because Russia has been attacking Ukraine’s territorial integrity since 2014, with the annexation of the Republic […]
Torbay MP Kevin Foster may think it’s acceptable to view Ukraine’s beleaguered citizens as the UK’s fruit and daffodil pickers of the future (see The tweet heartless Kevin Foster didn’t want you to see – West Country Voices). But more than 100 members of the public gathered today at the Ukrainian Cross on a country […]
A large crowd gathered in Exeter’s Bedford Square to attend a pro-Ukraine vigil organised by Exeter City Council’s leader, Phil Bialyk. Phil has family in the Ukraine and during the course of his speech he spoke to his brother in Ukraine. Although we could not catch his words, that was one of many heart-rendingly emotional […]
I have written today about the government’s callousness towards Ukrainian refugees, cloaked in a nicey-nicey, flag-sporting charade of fake sympathy. The reality is that there is NO effort being made to offer sanctuary to men, women and children fleeing the war. Patel and now Torbay’s Kevin Foster have been gaslighting the British public, pretending that […]
Dear Sheryll Murray, I hope that you are well in these difficult times. I feel so utterly powerless to do anything so tragic.You, however, have power as part of our parliament. Please use your power to maximize help for Ukraine. I am very concerned and frightened by how much our country is mixed up with […]
These words were spoken by Volodymyr Zelenskyy, President of Ukraine, on national TV on Wednesday evening, , 23 February 2022, hours before the start of the Russian invasion. The FT’s Max Seddon reported: “The first two minutes of that speech were in Ukrainian. Zelensky updated the nation on the state of emergency and his contacts […]
This is Alexandr Dugin, a Russian philosopher, strategist, political analyst and author of a several books including Foundations of Geopolitics (1997), and who in 2014 called for the eradication of the Ukrainian identity, following disappointment that Putin did not come to the aid of pro-Russian insurgents. As I highlight some key elements of the book […]