Thatcher utilised three emergent themes: globalisation, social liberalism and the reconfiguration of class structure. She used the spirits of the age to drive her own key project - unfettered markets. There is plenty the left could learn here.
From PM Monti's technocracy to President Napolitano's ten 'wise men', Italy is turning to technical expertise to rescue it from political lethargy. But the rise (and fall) of Italy's technocrats only hides the chronic frictions between the country's political class and its educated – and forgotten
From April 2013 major changes to benefit provision in Britain will likely change both the social and spatial make-up of our cities. The squeezing out of poorer residents from London and elsewhere, raises an important question: exactly who has the ‘right’ to the city in contemporary Britain?
Bahrain’s Arab Spring has developed into an ugly sectarian battle, pitting the Al-Khalifa regime, with the support of Saudi Arabia, conservative Sunni clerics and most of Bahrain’s Sunni minority on one side, against activists for the country’s Shia majority on the other. This development has suit
How Egypt’s young adults stole the show, which is how it should be, because the show was meant to be about them in the first place.
In Egypt we have a lot of people who are dirt poor, and a thin stratum that has lavish spending habits. They spend their money on things that are trivial and just plain inconsiderate when it comes to their fellow citizens.
Away from the traditional circles of power, a new force has been working its way up to the surface of the Algerian political landscape: that of organised youth activism.
Whether or not the Women of the Wall will actually face arrest or detention on April 10 remains to be seen; that they have faced this in the past only to return in greater numbers is a testament to the righteous chutzpah necessary to transform the gendered discrimination at Judaism's holiest site.
French and German overriding of the European Commission over the Stability Pact can be seen, ten years later, to have been disastrous. A vision more powerful, more engaging, more profound than “common interest” is now required if Europe is to survive, and divided Cyprus is a test case.
On the eve of the tenth anniversary of the fall of Baghdad, former organiser in the Stop the War movement and Iraq hostage negotiator, Anas Altikriti, says Iraq has never been closer to a civil war.
The horrific rape of a student sparked a remarkable movement against sexual violence in India which has forced the government to change the laws on gender violence. While the struggle continues, a new organisation in Britain, the Freedom Without Fear Platform, redefines the notion of solidarity.
