EU referendum: 40pc increase in campaign budget limit angers Eurosceptics as Barack Obama again voices support for Yes vote June 8, 2015 David Cameron has angered Eurosceptics with plans to raise the campaign spending limits for the EU referendum by 40 per cent. According to The Times, he amount the “lead” organisation in each campaign will be permitted to spend will hit £7m, up from £5m, while the total for each campaign would be £35m, up from [...]
Despite Obama’s silver tongue, the future of Iraq is looking pretty bleak after fall of Ramadi to Islamic State May 25, 2015 No Mr President, losing Ramadi is not a “tactical setback” – it is a catastrophe. Having also got by on my wits in graduate school, I always had a sense that I understood the elusive failings of Barack Obama far too well. When he obfuscates, he does so elegantly, often speaking in half-truths, illustrating his [...]
Potus tweets, world listens: Barack Obama finally gets his own Twitter account May 19, 2015 Barack Obama is used to enduring long battles but even by his standards, a six-year wait to get a Twitter account must have been something of a slog. Still, he's made his point, gaining 1.77m followers in less than 24 hours, easily beating poor old David Cameron, who languishes down the table with * [...]
David Axelrod compares embattled Douglas Alexander to Barack Obama May 4, 2015 Labour's shadow foreign secretary Douglas Alexander, who is battling to cling on to his Paisley and Renfrewshire South seat, has been compared to Barack Obama by the man who was instrumental to the President's two election victories. David Axelrod who served as a senior adviser to Obama and is now working as a consultant for [...]
Was a part of the Conservative manifesto borrowed from an Obama campaign ad? April 14, 2015 Most of the focus on the Tory manifesto has been on the pledges to extend right-to-buy, double free child care and spend another £8bn on the NHS. But one of the stranger aspects of the Conservative manifesto can be found on page three. The heading declares in rather Orwellian fashion "we have a plan for [...]
Obama should listen to the people in pushing through his Iran nuclear deal April 6, 2015 Foreign policy analysis in any country tends to be the preserve of a tiny elite: a small number of people practise it, and generally a miniscule section of society follows it. In the UK, to all our shame, a far greater percentage of the population watches The X Factor than exhibits a healthy understanding [...]
Netanyahu wants to kill the US-Iran nuclear deal: Obama must not let him March 9, 2015 For all the clouds of controversy that perpetually swirl around him, Israeli Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu possesses two great qualities that wholly elude the timid and colourless European leaders I am fated to spend so much of my time writing about: he has a gambler’s heart and he is eloquent. Both these admirable traits were [...]
Iran nuclear talks: Obama says he would “walk away” from a bad deal March 8, 2015 Amid mounting criticism from the Republicans over his approach to Iran's nuclear programme, US President Barack Obama has insisted he would “walk away” before agreeing to a bad deal. In an interview with CBS News today, he said any agreement would have to satisfy Washington's demands and ensure Iran had no way of making an [...]
Obama attacks Europe over tech protectionism against Google February 16, 2015 US President Barack Obama hit out at the EU for its scrutiny of companies like Google and Facebook, which he believes is driven by a desire to protect European tech companies. Search giant Google is currently embroiled in a four-year probe into its dominant position in Europe’s search engine market. “Sometimes the European response here [...]
General Election 2015: Three things we learned about Ed Miliband from his Obama strategist David Axelrod in his interview with the Guardian February 16, 2015 The man who helped get Obama elected and invented what’s probably the most famous political slogan of our times – “Yes We Can” – is on the campaign trail (sort of) with Ed Miliband as the Labour leader’s hot-shot election strategist. Miliband hired the political heavyweight David Axelrod as an adviser in a bid to [...]