Rifts emerge in Parti Socialiste
Olivier Poncelet considers the disarray of the French left wing party
Due to inner divisions, the major left wing French political party, the Parti Socialiste (PS) is experiencing a major crisis. The congress that starts on the 14th of November in Reims is supposed to unite the party and put it back on track in preparation for the next presidential election.
New leaders of the PS will be elected during the congress. Party members voted last Thursday over six motions to find out what issues were thought to be most important. Finally, the motion led by Ségolène Royal – the former candidate to the presidency – won, but only with 29% of the vote, highlighting the deep divisions that have been tearing the PS apart since the end of the presidency of Mitterrand in 1995. Mitterand remains the only left wing president.
Britain "can't wait" for ID cards
As the Government persist with the condemned ID card scheme, Jacqui Smith claims that many Brits "can't wait" for the cards. Emma McFarnon reports
Apparently, Britain “can’t wait” for ID Cards to come into force. The Home Secretary Jacqui Smith recently announced that although the cards won’t be available to everyone until 2012, people have been telling her that they can’t wait that long. In response to this “public demand”, plans for the ID cards have been amended to allow people to pre-register for an ID card within the next few months.
This is a frightening development when we consider the potentially catastrophic impact of the National Identity Scheme (NIS), not to mention its under-developed and un-tested technology. The scheme has been met with a barrage of opposition since proposals for the card came in May 2005. The NO2ID campaign has accused the system of “stalking”. The government’s proposal to log all our personal data in up to 50 categories of information about ourselves has sparked great controversy. Similarly, the use of biometrics has been criticised for being fatally flawed. With fingerprint recognition working for just 81% of a tested quota group, and facial recognition being successful just 69% of the time, the technology which the Home Office has hailed to be “truly effective and secure” is nowhere near accurate enough.
Labour bounce back to win Glenrothes
Rachelle Simons analyses the latest by-election in Glenrothes and what it means for the Labour party
After epic speeches, voting queues and bulletproof glass across the Atlantic; the focus now turns to a town in central east Scotland. Glenrothes, a former mining town which has been a Labour safe seat for 60 years. So why has retaining this seat become such a victory? With the Labour candidate grabbing 55% of the vote, Glenrothes provided a much need boost to a demoralised party.
The by-election victory functions as a vote of confidence in Labour. The victory puts out a positive message to voters: that Labour are not finished yet. However, as the issues debated were local, the victory may not stand national scrutiny. Significantly, this by-election has come as a surprise, with bookmakers and politicians alike predicting a victory for the Scottish National Party (SNP). Thge party’s First Minister Alex Salmond, who visited Glenrothes 13 times and co-opted Obama’s slogan ‘Yes We Can!’, has since been accused of complacency. Tricia Marwick, the SNP member of Scottish Parliament said: ‘I saw people coming out to vote for Labour who haven’t voted for 20 years. I need to think about that’.
Is British Politics Stagnating?
Gareth Ludkin Considers what lessons Britain can take from the US election campaign and what can be done to invigorate passion in British politics
At last we can all breath a sigh of relief. Barack Obama is the new President of America and the future looks supposedly rosy for a nation with more problems than you can shake a stick at.
America may be saved but what about Britain? Coming off the back of this historic election we must ask ourselves, why is the difference between British and American politics so stark? Why does no one give two hoots about British Politics? And why oh why don’t I own a t-shirt adorned with Gordon Browns chirpy face?
Obama Takes The Plunge
Adrian Filice reflects on a monumental election and considers what's in store for Barack Obama and the world as America makes history
“Yes we can! Yes we can!” The chants of Obama supporters rang from town to town last week as they celebrated what many had been anticipating for months. A year ago analysts were counting Mr Obama out, citing inexperience and race as reasons voters would not be drawn to him. But it’s the zealous enthusiasm of a young politician that garnered Mr Obama a record turnout from voters last week on one of the most historic elections of all time.
The ‘innate racism’ in the Deep South that many feared could ruin the dreams of millions was not as much a concern as was expected, highlighted by the fact that Mr Obama won Virginia, the state where slavery in America was born. This is a momentous turning point for America, in policy as well as practice. 53 years ago, Rosa Parks refused to sit in the back of the bus. 45 years ago, Martin Luther King Jr. had a dream. And on Tuesday, November 4 2008 that dream came true when America elected their first black president. America is head over heels in love with Barack Hussein Obama.
Obama assasination plot foiled
Olivier Poncelet takes a look at the threat of racism in America after a plot to assasinate Obama was uncovered
A week before the presidential election in the USA, US officials announced that two young white supremacists had been arrested in Alamo, Tennessee. Daniel Cowart, 20 years old and Paul Schlesselman, two years younger were planning on killing 102 Afro-American children and the black presidential candidate, Barack Obama.
Court documents disclosed last Monday show that their intentions were to murder 88 black children and behead 14. These figures are highly symbolic among ‘white power’ movements. ‘88’ stands for the Nazi greeting ‘Heil Hitler’, H being the 8th letter in the alphabet and 14 being the number of words in the following slogan: ‘We must secure the existence of our people and a future for white children’. This slogan, inspired by Mein Kampf, was made up by David Lane, a member of the Order, a white supremacist group, very active during the 1980’s. Its members advocate the necessity to get rid of the non-white people in the USA and remove the ‘Zionist-occupied government’ of the US.
"Live from New York...It's Saturday Night!"
Sarah Palin has been a rich source of political satire during this election but how much has comedy changed public opinion? Siobhan McGurk investigates
The extraordinary final few weeks in the race for the White House have left everyone with a wealth of topics up for discussion. Some ask if racism will scupper Barack Obama at the final hurdle, whilst others wonder why Joe the Plumber has no official plumbing license. Few can deny that the biggest buzz on the streets and in the media in the lead up to the election has been Tina Fey’s recent impersonations of Governor Sarah Palin on Saturday Night Live.
For those of you not familiar with Fey, she is the woman who brought us Mean Girls and Emmy Award-winning 30 Rock. One look at her and you’ll beg to ask the question ‘Were Fey and Palin separated at birth?’ It was this striking similarity, along with a brilliant Alaskan accent and clever script writing that has turned the first sketch into comedy gold. One quick web search will produce pages of items related to the sketch and to two subsequent, equally hilarious sketches from Fey. In fact, the clips have received over 10 million hits online and SNL’s viewing figures have risen to their highest in 14 years.
Historic US presidential election nears thrilling climax
Luke Alexander Snell analyses the all important US election debates ahead of this week's historic presidential vote
Amidst the near daily speechmaking, scathing advertising, grassroots activism, big business funding, media sensationalism and partisan push polling lies the holy grail of the American election season: the Presidential debate.
The tradition of the televised Presidential debate began in 1960. These were the arguably election winning series of clashes between an inexperienced yet inspiring New York Senator and an unfortunately sweaty and 12-o-clock shadow clad Washington insider.
Mccain or Obama?
Jenni Summers and Oliver Franklin make the case for each candidate
Barack Obama
Senator Obama’s campaign for change has resonated across the world, and not only because he represents a break from the abuses and failures of the Bush Administration. Character is his chief asset: from his inspirational oratory, his calmness under the stress of the presidential debates to his thoughtful intelligence, it is clear that Barack Obama is the man to lead America into a new era.
The British perspective
Chris Tarquini finds out what its like to be a Brit campaigning for Barack Obama
Richard Lane is the creator of politicana.co.uk, a website that takes a British view of American politics. A former Hillary Clinton supporter, he is now campaigning in America for Barack Obama. I spoke to him to gather his insights into this historic race.
With recent polls showing Barack Obama with a strong lead, do you believe Election Day will be as tight as the last two elections?
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