Elliott Kime 23 May 2019 5:33 PM 23 May 2019 5:33 PM Share Twitter Facebook LinkedIn Email Whatsapp Natural death might be non-partisan, but that hasn’t stopped it being politicised by liberals and socialists alike. One writer recently calculated that, assuming birth and death rates in Britain stay steady, Remainers will be the majority in 2022. Now, sitting around watching the clock and waiting for the right kind of pensioners to pop off the electoral register isn’t the most audacious of politics. But the newfound popularity of millennial socialism means ‘young people’ are as synonymous with nationalisation and redistributionism as ‘the miners’ were in the 1970s. So hold on to your iPads and Starbucks’ cups because we are on a one-way journey to a liberal future, and there is nothing you or anyone else can do or say about it. There is just one problem. Young people are actually quite conservative. And not just … [Read more...] about Why young conservatives are the new radicals
The new radicals
The new radicalization of the internet
Picture: AFP Social media has played a key role in the recent rise of violent right-wing extremism in the United States, including three recent incidents — one in which a man was accused of sending mail bombs to critics of the president, another in which a man shot dead two African-Americans in a Kroger’s grocery store in Kentucky, and a third in which a man is accused of conducting a murderous rampage at a synagogue in Pittsburgh. Each of these attacks falls under the definition of right-wing extremism by the Global Terrorism Database at the University of Maryland: “violence in support of the belief that personal and/or national way of life is under attack and is either already lost or that the threat is imminent." Antiglobalism, racial or ethnic supremacy, nationalism, suspicion of the federal government, obsessions over individual liberty — these are all hallmarks of this network of ideologies, which is, of course, shot through with conspiracy … [Read more...] about The new radicalization of the internet
Where is the new Cold War headed?
Chinese efforts to build a so-called “win-win’”relationship through trade concessions and cooperation on Korea and Afghanistan have clearly failed. US vice president Pence last week declared a new Cold War against China. America has now decisively stepped into the Thucydides Trap — the Ancient Greek historian’s thesis that a confrontation between an established and a rising power is almost always inevitable. China was accused by Pence of multiple wrongs: unfair trade, technology theft, targeted tariffs, interference in the US electoral process, a military buildup, militarisation of the South China Sea islands (to keep the US out), “debt diplomacy”, anti-US propaganda and internal oppression. Some believe that the US salvo was mainly designed to divert attention from the ongoing investigation into Trump’s possible collusion with Russia in the 2016 presidential elections and/or to mobilise votes for next month’s mid-term elections. … [Read more...] about Where is the new Cold War headed?
New Hope for Ethiopia as it ushers in the New Year
Somalilandsun -Ethiopia’s New Year fell on 11th September and this year – 2011 in the Ethiopian calendar and 2018 in the Gregorian calendar – there was much to celebrate, as Ethiopians from across the country and from abroad, celebrated together in peace and unity. The Ethiopian Embassy in the United Kingdom has just released its latest newsletter – an Autumn edition whose contents includes: * African Heads of Mission Meeting held in Edinburgh To kick off this autumn edition was an editorial titled New Year, New Hope Ethiopia celebrates 1st Meskeram 2011 Most eye-catching was the peaceful conclusion to the 20-year conflict between Ethiopia and Eritrea, which made news around the world and has produced positive reverberations across the African continent and beyond. There has also been a process of reconciliation at home where Ethiopia has witnessed an influx of diaspora Ethiopians, including high-profile opposition figures and … [Read more...] about New Hope for Ethiopia as it ushers in the New Year
The new Venezuela? Brazil populist Bolsonaro’s scare tactic gains traction
Before he was frontrunner to become Brazil’s next president, Jair Bolsonaro tried his hand at film-making. The picture? A 26-minute polemic posted on YouTube called Venezuela: An Alert for Brazil. The plot? A dastardly communist conspiracy to seize control of Latin America’s largest democracy and turn it into a Bolivarian inferno of savagery and destitution. “IS BRAZIL FREE FROM BECOMING THE VENEZUELA OF TOMORROW?” the far-right populist tweeted alongside a link to his politically charged flick, produced in partnership with his politician son Eduardo Bolsonaro. Jair Bolsonaro’s push for power has been turbocharged by a duo of contemporary Brazilian bugbears: fear of an intensifying murder crisis that last year claimed nearly 64,000 lives and fury at extreme levels of corruption. But a third, increasingly dominant, theme has also emerged in his fight for the presidency: the crisis in Venezuela and Bolsonaro’s oft-repeated allegation that his … [Read more...] about The new Venezuela? Brazil populist Bolsonaro’s scare tactic gains traction