Current affairs

Defence spending How can the U.K. afford to double its spending on "defence (1)" - fighter jets, military, and nuclear weapons - as America retreats from its role in world affairs (2)? And who could have forseen a Labour Government facing policy-driven opposition  from its own MPs  over plans to cut the "balooning" welfare spending bill (3)? In signing the Hague Declaration earlier in the same week, the Prime Minister said that the UK would buy American-made fighter jets.  This announcement signals the RAF's return to nuclear deterrence for the first time this century.  In so doing, it also raises pressing questions for Government at a time of further pressures on the public purse. Was any such committment about the projected degree of upscaling armaments articulated by the landslide-winning Labour Party in July 2024's General Election to the Westminster Parliament ?  Ambiguous references to Government's first committment of any Party being the security ...

U.K. criticises Israel The Government at Westminster has at long last condemned the war in Gaza as "intolerable."   More particularly, the U.K. Prime Minister declares that he is "horrified" by Israel's decision to escalate its military campaign, that Israel's decision to allow some aid in was "utterly inadequate;" with the Foreign Secretary adding that the situation in Gaza is "abominable."  The conflict in Gaza started after Hamas militants crossed into Israel on 7 Oct 2023 and killed 1200 people and taking another 251 people as hostages.  It has been described as "the deadliest attack on Jews since the Holocaust (1)".  Israel's response has led to an estimated  53,000  or more Palestinians being killed in  consequent  attacks in Gaza, nearly a third of them children according to Gaza's health authorities.   In the aftermath of the U.K's widely heralded ceremonies to mark the 80th anniversary of VE Day, one wonder...

The US Presidential Election Now that the dust has settled on the date when England celebrates Bonfire Night and Europe marked  the 35th anniversary of the Berlin Wall's collapse, let's highlight 2024's November 5th as the occasion of America's Presidential election.   For weeks in the run-up to polling day, all of the experts eshewed predictions about the likely winner.  The Presidential race was, by all accounts, too close to call.  The question is - how in the modern age can all of America's psephologists and experienced pundits so badly misjudge their research as Republicans proved them wrong storming to victory with majority control of the White House, the Senate and the House of Representatives.  No need for recounts or for recourse to prolonged legal challenges, and - mercifully, no call to storm the heart of American democracy, the Capitol in Washington DC. Instead emphatic adjectives like momentous, historic and unprecedented appeared in respons...

Three topical issues have grabbed public attention during this beautiful summer. The first was the life-affirming campaign by a County Tyrone mother Charlotte Caldwell to have cannabis oil for medicinal use legalised in the UK.   Health has been newsworthy this month as the UK marks the 70 th anniversary of the foundation of the National Health Service (5 July 1948). By coincidence, Jeanette Lewis’s informative article in Exploring Retirement [i] has reported about Canada’s intention to legalise recreational cannabis this autumn.     She explains that the THC cannabis chemical produces intoxicating effects, whereas its CBD chemical is non-intoxicating.   CBD produces medicinal benefits, including for the treatment of nausea after chemotherapy, for epileptic seizures and for arthritis.    Public sympathy was aroused following the confiscation by customs officials in London of CBD oils which Mrs Caldwell had purchased in Canada.   In...