The Right got it so wrong on Nelson Mandela
My friend Joan McAlpine has brought it all back in an excellent post on her Go Lassie Go blog: Where were you on Mandela freedom day? I was in Hong Kong, where I was a political reporter for the South...
View Article'Israel Apartheid Week' will only undermine the aspirations of the...
The sixth international 'Israel Apartheid Week' has kicked off with events taking place at more than 50 university campuses across the world, with London, Oxford and Edinburgh among a clutch of UK...
View ArticleThe word 'apartheid' is now so overused it has become meaningless
I hate phoney “awareness days”. I think it began with National No Smoking Day (today), which my father, a non-smoker, used to mark by smoking himself stupid. Now there’s not a day of the year that...
View ArticleWhen is the Left going to stop glamorising murderers?
Can the IRA be compared to the ANC? On Twitter yesterday Liberal Conspiracy’s Sunny Hundal announced that “people from Sinn Fein want to write articles for Libcon. Interesting times. I can see that...
View ArticleThe demand to ban an Israeli dance company from performing in Edinburgh is...
These are tough times for bigots. Speaking ill of ethnic minorities is frowned upon and hate speech is increasingly outlawed, which means there are fewer opportunities to be openly bigoted, to express...
View ArticleNelson Mandela was a secular saint for the whole world
It isn’t just South Africa that will mourn the passing of Nelson Mandela. He was a symbol of hope for us here in the UK, too. There was even a movement to have his statue erected in Trafalgar Square,...
View ArticleFew human beings can be compared to Jesus Christ. Nelson Mandela was one
Nelson Mandela once mused how different his life might have been. He told a friend that his family intended him to be a tribal chieftain but he ran away to escape from a forced marriage. "That changed...
View ArticleThe Left does not own Nelson Mandela's legacy
With the death of Nelson Mandela, the British Left has lost its leading icon. Though he is mourned across political divides that he did so much to bridge, the Labour Party feels a particular...
View ArticleNelson Mandela tributes: David Cameron was no friend of white South Africa –...
Later today the House of Commons will assemble to remember Nelson Mandela. The Prime Minister, appropriately, will lead the tributes. And when he does so, he needs to find a way of expressing not just...
View ArticleNelson Mandela's legacy: how life got better after Apartheid
There's a quiet consensus out there that Nelson Mandela was great, Apartheid was evil, but… The "but" is that life in South Africa got worse after racial segregation ended – that crime, corruption and...
View ArticleNelson Mandela's memorial was utterly divorced from the man's simple humanity
I switched on my TV to watch the memorial service for Nelson Mandela wondering how a single event could possibly the capture the spirit, life and achievements of the man. I soon got my answer; it...
View ArticlePeter Hain MP: Mandela owed him everything
As we grieve the loss of Madiba let us console ourselves with the happy thought that still living among us is an African-born hero whose saintliness, courage and high principle remain an example to us...
View ArticleOf course Nelson Mandela wasn't Jesus, but his suffering brought him closer...
I have been widely mocked and criticised for writing here last week that "There are very few human beings who can be compared to Jesus Christ. Nelson Mandela is one." The criticisms have been published...
View ArticleYes or No, violent language will lead to violent action eventually
It’s too close to call. Another poll – from ICM, who got the closest to the final result in the AV referendum – has the two sides at 51% for No and 49% for Yes. Owen Jones believes that, whatever...
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