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/ 26 December 2011
The delight that greeted the Games in London seems far away. But in July, with our heroes, the nation will feel hope again.
Given the jurisdiction of the International Criminal Court Gaddafi has almost nowhere to flee, writes <b>Jackie Ashley</b>.
The surge of rallies reflects an understanding that the world is changing — and politicians had better pay attention, writes Jackie Ashley.
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/ 19 February 2007
There is something mysterious about Tony Blair just now. Hostility towards him over the cash-for-honours investigation, Iraq and much else does not abate. In interviews, he’s constantly asked when he’s going to leave. The polls are terrible. He should be grey, worn down, despairing. Yet he seems almost perky.
This week neuro-biologist Susan Greenfield asked Britain’s House of Lords a question that affects all of us, yet which I have never heard discussed by mainstream politicians: Is technology changing our brains? The context is the clicking, bleeping, flashing world of screens.
Tony Blair has verbal gifts. One of them is understatement. There had been ”a certain wear and tear” in his position as prime minister, he told John Humphrys on Wednesday. Wear and tear? Public anger and mistrust about him, focused on Iraq, has been devastating to his election campaign. The question is not whether he gives way to Gordon Brown, but when.
”The campaign is flat out, and so is the prime minister; a whirlwind of argument, arms flailing, fingers stabbing. By the time I get to speak to him, he has already chaired a morning press conference, been quizzed for half an hour by doubting Radio 1 music station listeners and knocked off a couple of other TV and radio interviews.” Jackie Ashley joins British Prime Minister Tony Blair on the campaign trail.
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/ 28 January 2003
It has already been dubbed ”doing a Hillary [Clinton]”’. Ana Botella, the striking wife of Spanish Prime Minister Jose Maria Aznar, this month announced she’s standing for election as a city councillor in Madrid for the ruling centre-right Popular Party. Not surprisingly, the press is fascinated.
Northern Ireland faces a ”nightmare scenario” with Ian Paisley’s Democratic Unionists Party (DUP) and Sinn Fein becoming the dominant parties and the peace process in such trouble that it would take a generation to resolve, First Minister David Trimble said this week.