Cameron Favors Turkish EU Membership
Britain’s premier says it’s wrong to let Turkey guard the camp but not allow it to sit in the tent.
Europe
The Strainful Relationship: Where’s the Beginning and the End?
Is worrying over Anglo-American relations no more than a curious pastime?
Former MI5 Chief Denounces Iraq Invasion
Former Director General of MI5, Britain’s internal security service, Baroness Eliza Manningham-Buller described the invasion of Iraq as a mistake on Tuesday, noting that the attack had exacerbated the terrorist threat to the country and was a “highly significant” factor in how “home grown” Muslim fundamentalists justified their actions. Manningham-Buller told the Chilcot inquiry that […]
The Man Who Will Save UK Defense
Like most world nations, faced with massive debt and unemployment, Great Britain is currently planning deep cuts in government expenditure to balance the budget. Not surprisingly, many of these will fall on the military, already greatly strained with replacing Cold War era weapons stocks, while at the same time fighting an ongoing counterinsurggency in Afghanistan. […]
Cameron on the Special Relationship
The British leader dismisses his nation’s endless preoccupation with the health of the transatlantic relationship.
NATO Allies Weary About Future Afghan Mission
Skepticism about the war effort in Afghanistan is mounting.
Are We Still Friends?
Doubts about President Barack Obama’s commitment to the old continent are growing.
British Withdrawing from Sangin, Afghanistan
The United Kingdom will withdraw parts of its forces from the hotly contested Helmand Province in Afghanistan later this year. The region around the town of Sangin, notorious as a Taliban powerbase and a center of the opium trade in the south of the country, has seen heavy fighting in recent months, demanding several casualties […]
Liberal Wins Polish Presidency
Bronisław Komorowski fends off a challenge from the right to claim the presidency for the Civic Platform.
Political Right on the Rise in Central Europe
After the election of the conservative Fidesz party in Hungary last month, neighboring Slovakia is also taking a right turn, evicting the imcumbent prime minister in favor of an array of small parties campaigning of a platform of free-market capitalism and ethnic harmony. Since the ascendance of a right-wing coalition in September 2002, Slovakia has […]
Obama Urges Europe to Spend More
The American president calls for more deficit spending. European countries are skeptical.
Cameron Defends Emergency Budget
Chancellor of the Exchequer George Osborne delivered his first budget last week, outlining his plans to “balance the books” by 2016. Tax increases and benefit cuts are tough but “unavoidable,” said Osborne. Britian’s coalition government of Conservatives and Liberal Democrats will raise the main value-added tax rate from 17.5 to 20 percent next year. Taxes […]
Europe Ponders Tougher Budget Rules
Europe’s finance ministers agreed last week to review each other’s national budgets in the future to prevent one or several member states from imperiling the stability of the common currency as happened in Greece this April. The move may end being a step in the right direction but little more than that. The finance chiefs […]
Flanders Favors Nationalist Newcomer
Flemish separatists are on the rise while French-speaking Belgium remains mired in recession.
Brits Urge Obama to Stop Bashing BP
British leaders are concerned about the American president’s criticism of the oil company.