Published in The Independent (February 17th, 2014) The other day I was chatting to an African friend when he asked a question that took me by surprise. “Is […]
Drugs / Policy / Politics
A cheer for Nick Clegg – he is talking about drugs
Published in The Independent (February 10th, 2014) Hooray! Give Nick Clegg a cheer – at last we have a prominent frontline politician talking some sense on drugs. Following […]
Israel, West Bank & Gaza / World
Summer on a kibbutz as Sharon dragged Israel into a quagmire
Published in The Independent (January 13th, 2014) In 1982, facing the long summer of a second-year student in the days of student grants, I followed a friend – […]
Aid / China / World
World hunger has fallen. Now what do we do about the planet’s expanding waistline?
Published in The Independent (January 11th, 2014) In the year of my birth China was engulfed in the worst famine of modern history. One chronicler remembers rushing home […]
Africa / Rwanda / South Africa
Kagame’s enemies have a strange habit of dying
Published in The Independent (January 3rd, 2014) Patrick Karegeya knew Paul Kagame well. The pair went to school together, worked alongside each other in Ugandan intelligence and then […]
Immigration / Policy
Families that need £18,600 to spend Christmas together
Published in The Independent (December 19th, 2013) Like any father, Ethan James Feltham was looking forward to Christmas with his wife and their new son. But instead he […]
Africa / Zimbabwe
Should Britain and South Africa have invaded Zimbabwe?
Published in The Independent (November 30th, 2013) Robert Mugabe has long claimed that Britain wanted to overthrow him, using this to smear his political opponents as Western stooges […]
Politics
Heed this warning or risk terminal decline
Published in The Independent (November 20th, 2013) The tragedy of the Conservative Party is that when things get tough it has a suicidal tendency to retreat into its […]
Africa / Kenya
A rare triumph for human rights over realpolitik
Published in The Independent (November 16th, 2013) So the International Criminal Court can fight on in its struggle to bring tyrants to justice. The United Nations has seen off […]
Crime / Disability / Policy
Insulted, bullied and murdered – for being disabled
Published in The Independent (November 8th, 2013) David is an autistic man in his fifties. He lives in his own flat in north-east London, earning piecemeal money washing […]
Africa / Nigeria
A conflict crying out for more attention – and less violence
Published in The Independent (October 1st, 2013) The murder of Saturday lunchtime shoppers in a Nairobi shopping centre grabbed global headlines. This was unsurprising: it was a savage […]