The UK faces a "guns vs. butter" debate, balancing welfare and military spending amid rising global tensions and a perceived unreliable US. Critics highlight defense overspending and delays, while questioning the narrative of escalating welfare costs.
The UK faces a "guns vs. butter" debate, balancing welfare and military spending amid rising global tensions and a perceived unreliable US. Critics highlight defense overspending and delays, while questioning the narrative of soaring welfare costs, particularly concerning pensions.
A new documentary series, 'Free Nelson Mandela,' highlights the decades-long campaign against apartheid, emphasizing the power of resistance, the sacrifices made, and Nelson Mandela's transformation from a 'terrorist' to a global icon. The series features insights from activists Peter Hain and Dali Tambo, detailing their personal experiences and the impact of cultural and sporting boycotts.
Mr Blobby, the divisive 90s TV character, is experiencing a surprising comeback, appearing on primetime shows, duetting with popstars, and selling merchandise. Cultural commentators debate his enduring appeal, with some calling him "breathtakingly stupid" and others a "quintessentially British phenomenon."
In The Assassination of Margaret Thatcher, the award-winning author imagined a plot to kill the PM.
Archives reveal how a format that even one winning manager wanted abolished four decades ago came to beAs the playoffs begin for the 40th time, it is easy to forget there was once a world without them. But where did they come from? Whose idea were they? And how did they take root in English football? The EFL granted access to its archives containing the documents and meeting minutes charting how an idea, conceived to help lower-league clubs financially and add late-season spice, evolved into one of the most cherished fixtures in the English football calendar and gave birth the “richest game in football”, as the Championship final is known.It is hard to comprehend quite how broken English football was in the mid-1980s. In the 1988 book League Football and the Men Who Made it, Simon Inglis writes: “The year 1985 was the most devastating in the hundred years of the Football League.” Hooligans attracted headlines, fans were killed in riots and clashes with police drew the attention of the prime minister, Margaret Thatcher, who told football to get its house in order. Continue reading...
The Tell Sid campaign promised to make the working man rich, but in reality the selling of public assets made us all poorerIn the summer of 1987, as life in Britain was being steadily reshaped by Margaret Thatcher, I landed a temporary job as an electrician’s mate in a steel-drum factory. I was a truly useless assistant, and justified my existence by singing songs to entertain my boss as he worked. As I recall, by the time I left Stuart had come round to quite liking Bob Dylan, but still had no time for the gothic gloominess of the early Cure.While I handed him tools he didn’t need, and failed to locate the ones he did, we occasionally talked about politics. Stuart was a gentle man in his mid-20s, already married and hoping to buy a house. He was also, it turned out, a cautious believer in Thatcher’s promise of a “people’s capitalism” in which working people would get a piece of the action. Prior to my coming to “help” him, he was one of the millions who had responded to the previous year’s Tell Sid ad campaign and bought shares in newly privatised British Gas. Continue reading...
Olly Robbins gave MPs a classic civil servant’s performance – and there are lessons from the past about how ministers should respondThe Whitehall satire Yes Minister was said to be Margaret Thatcher’s favourite TV show due to its proximity to reality, as the programme’s loquacious top civil servant, Sir Humphrey, might have put it.Yes Minister had a familiar groove: there would be a problem in response to which the mandarin would artfully deploy the most astonishing sophistry to avoid blame or get his own way. Jim Hacker, the largely clueless yet ambitious politician played by the late Paul Eddington, rarely won the day. Continue reading...
The firing of Olly Robbins by Prime Minister Keir Starmer over a vetting oversight has reignited debates about the relationship between politicians and the civil service, with historical precedents suggesting such conflicts often backfire on the political leadership.
