Gair Rhydd

What's gone wrong, Dave?

The Tories are slumping in the polls and can't seem to find momentum. James Stonebridge investigates

The crescendo of the Conservative Party Spring Conference was supposed to be a confident and purposeful speech by a man who was certain to become the country’s next Prime Minister.

Instead, David Cameron’s grand finale felt more like a cry for help. With Lord Ashcroft, one of the Party’s main financial backers, confirming that he is a non-UK tax payer, it has definitely been a difficult week for the Conservatives.

Time for hanging around

With the increased likelihood of a hung parliament, James Dunn looks at what it all means for Britain

*What would happen if you were to put two kids who hated each other in a room together? And then a thrid smaller, slightly more bitter child? *

The third kid gets bullied. The first two argue, and eventually one wins, one way or another. Now imagine the room is slightly bigger. It has more people in it – 644 more in fact. The fate of the nation rests on a result.

This world, this week

Iraqi issues

Doctors in the Iraqi city of Fallujah have reported an extremely high level of birth defects.

Have one of your five a day

Damian Fantato has a chat with Alun Mathias, who just wants to make the world a better place... starting out in Cardiff Central

Alun Mathias is standing for election in Cardiff Central. You might have heard from him already. In fact, you might have received his book through the post.

The fact that this apparently normal middle-aged man is standing for election isn’t on its own remarkable, but there’s something different about Mr. Mathias’ campaign, something much more interesting.

Vote of confidence

The elections watchdog warned last week that more than half of young people eligible to vote are not registered to do so.

The Electoral Commission has said that 3.5 million people are not registered, and 56 percent of 17-25 year olds are not present on the electoral roll.

Karadzic goes on trial

Jonathan Bird shares his thoughts on the trial of Radovan Karadzic

Dr Radovan Karadzic, leader of Bosnia’s Serbs during the civil war of the 1990’s, spoke at The Hague last week. He denounced his war crime charges as “fabricated myths” and declared the Serb nationalist cause “just and holy”.

Karadzic is facing charges of genocide, war crimes and crimes against humanity. He is supposedly responsible for the indescriminate bombing of Sarajevo, which claimed 12,000 civilian lives, and the Srebrenica massacre, which was responsible for the death of 8,000 Bosnians.

Back to the future

Argentina claim the Falklands are theirs. Damian Fantato explains why

Right. So we know that the 80s are supposed to be back in fashion, but this is ridiculous.

Argentina is renewing its claims to the Falkland Islands after passing a law in December which establishes that the Falklands, as well as other British Overseas Territories, are, in fact, Argentinian.

Making a killing

Last week, Israel was accused of sending 15 secret agents to Dubai to kill a senior member of Hamas.

The operation was, strictly speaking, a success: Mahmoud al-Mabhouh, a Hamas senior commander, is no longer alive. The problem is that the secret agents in question left a trail behind themselves.

Giving you a peace of their mind

Chris Tarquini has a chat with Barbara Tucker, a member of a protest group that's been outside Parliament for nine years

At first glance, the banners and tents looks like any other protest. However what makes this campaign different is that it’s in Parliament Square, positioned right next to Westminster Palace, and it has been there for almost ten years.

The Parliamentary Peace Campaign was started in 2001 by Brian Haw. Although originally targeted against the British and American bombing campaign in Iraq, long before the controversial Iraq War, it has spread to campaign against Western aggression in general. As I crossed the road towards the pictures of bombs and children savaged by warfare, I took a deep breath: would an organisation notoriously suspicious of much of the media tear apart an unsuspecting student reporter who could probably pass for a sixth former? What met me was quite a contrast. Far from some of the vitriol-spitting anger-merchants that many protests on any side of the political spectrum attract, the relaxed demeanour of the lady standing by the signs was a great surprise.

Brown goes old school

Gordon Brown has been accused of bullying his staff. Should this matter? Yaz Langley takes a look

So the gist of the story is that one journalist wrote a few little stories about a few things Brown might or might not have done backed up by a few phone calls to the National Bullying Helpline which might or might not have been directly about Gordon himself.

Several statements and articles later and the media have turned him into an aggressive monster who ‘assaults people, has childish tantrums and throws Nokia phones about’.