The stories and images coming out of Afghanistan are haunting. The helpless eyes of the long suffering men, women and children pierce through your heart and leave a wound in your memories. Children with sunken eyes and bloated stomachs gasping for life as their parents watch, desperately. I know how
A comeback, and a swansong… Against all odds, the centre-left Socialist Party (Partido Socialista, PS) achieved an absolute majority in the latest Portuguese legislative elections on 30 January. The result came as a surprise to everyone – including, arguably, Prime Minister António Costa, who days before had abandoned his calls
Given the recent turn in polling, it now seems that Labour could well win the next election with pledges to fix the damage left by the Tories. The pledges might include: end child poverty; rebuild the Welfare State; green energy, housing and communities; rebuild our democracy; regain respect for the
The Australian soap opera Neighbours is reportedly under threat from Channel 5 bosses looking for cuts. The economics of this are slightly unclear – whatever its many merits, it does not appear drastically expensive television to make, and still does decent numbers for its timeslot. In any case, within the
In his first column of a new, monthly, series for Progressive Britain Paul Richards takes on Michael Gove… The Labour Government elected in 1997 set the ambitious goal that within 10 to 20 years no-one should be ‘seriously disadvantaged by where they live’. After nearly two decades of Tory indifference,
The Republic of North Macedonia, which gained independence from the Socialist Federation of Yugoslavia in 1991, has had a tumultuous political history. While the country ended its first decade of independence with the resolution of an inter-ethnic conflict in 2001, the last decade has been marked by considerable changes and
What is the crisis? Charities and consumer rights bodies have warned that a 51% rise in the energy price cap planned for April will mean “people will be left unable to eat regularly or could even be at risk of death from the cold.” Proposals to respond to this hike
Society is facing challenges on multiple fronts. The last time this country faced comparable challenges it was emerging from the Second World War, and it was Clement Attlee’s Labour government that was tasked with finding the answers. Today’s Labour leader – Sir Keir Starmer – rightly recognised this in his
The 2021 landslide victory in the Zagreb mayoral elections for Tomislav Tomašević was akin to a coronation for the ‘new’ progressive forces in Croatia. The green-left platform ‘Možemo!’ (We Can!) showed that they can reach out to a wide audience. At the same time, a world-renowned physicist, Ivica Puljak, won
Despite making progress in EU accession negotiations since 2014, Serbia is a country which has witnessed major democratic backsliding in recent years. Ever since Srpska napredna stranka (Serbian Progressive Party, SNS), led by Aleksandar Vučić, won an absolute majority of seats in the national parliament in 2014, the country entered
