Last week I attended a discussion on ‘Ways to reinvigorate the Middle East peace process’ organised by the South-East Asia and Middle East Forum. Israeli senior embassy diplomat Ran Gidor spoke of the impressive progress made by the Palestinians in state-building, and singled out Middle East envoy Tony Blair for special praise. He repeated his …

Labour has spent years now worrying about how to gain credibility on economic policy. Meanwhile, the Conservatives and Liberal Democrats are making a good job of losing it. The UK now appears to be back in recession.  Ahead lies the risk that the economy will go backwards this year and put deficit-cutting plans further into …

Nicolas Sarkozy made French history on Sunday – he became the first incumbent president to fail to win the first round in the Fifth Republic. Francois Hollande topped the poll and gave great hope to the French socialists who haven’t won a presidential election for 24 years. It looks likely that Hollande will go on …

France likes to surprise. Three months ago it seemed so obvious a re-election for Sarkozy that David Cameron and Angela Merkel couldn’t wait to endorse him. Three weeks ago it was Hollande who was gliding faultlessly if unexcitingly to power. Three days ago all the excitement was over Jean-Luc Melenchon whose windy appeals were thought …

The parties of the European left were the biggest losers of the first round of elections after the financial crisis. Today, with publics become increasingly sceptical of fiscal austerity, a second round of political defeats would be devastating. It would signal that the left has not confronted the reasons why a neoliberal-inspired collapse badly exposed …

Over a year since the first protests of the Arab Spring, and with so much hope, uncertainty and pain continuing to be felt across the Middle East, it is right that Labour is at the centre of efforts to promote the spread of democracy and respect for human rights in the region. Yesterday’s parliamentary debate …

The increase in overseas aid has cross-party support because it is right and it works In these times of austerity there are few areas of spending which enjoy cross-party support yet as the budget looms this Wednesday all three main parties are still committed to Britain reaching its aid target of 0.7 per cent of …

1.    Russia is a business, not a functioning constitutional, let alone democratic nation-state.  There is no distinction between political and business life, between state employees and those who run enterprises of any shape. From the collapse of communism onwards, politics has been paid for by the parastatal and private sector enterprises principally based on energy, …

Though there will be some tensions between Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu and US president Barack Obama when they meet on Iran today, they have a shared interest in projecting a common determination to stop Iran getting nuclear weapons. Iran’s assessment of US and wider western resolve could be an important factor in determining whether …

The foreign secretary updated the House this week on the situation in Syria and the whole House was appalled to learn that the Syrian government appears to be escalating repression. The Syrian government is responsible for widespread human rights crimes including the deliberate targeting of civilians and journalists. Across the region tens of thousands have …