Новости за 17.08.2015

It is no secret that politicians use one sort  of language in public and another when talking among themselves. For public consumption, everything a politician does is driven by a high-minded desire to do what is right. In private, they acknowledge that low calculation and partisan interest pervade the political process.

When it was a purely hereditary chamber, it used to be said that the best thing to do with the House of Lords was to leave it as it was or abolish it – but never try to reform it. Some years after the Blair government removed most of the hereditary element and the Lords’ judicial function was hived off to the Supreme Court, the effects of this half-finished reform are apparent. For all of the excellent work that its committees and members do, the Lords is too large, too corrupt and too unrepresentative. Читать дальше...

Turkey’s Asli Cakir Alptekin has been stripped of the 2012 Olympic women’s 1500 metres gold medal and banned for eight years for a doping offence, the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS) announced.

Kezia Dugdale is the sixth leader of the Scottish Labour Party since it lost the 2007 Scottish Parliament election to the SNP, and the eighth of the devolved era. Such a quick turnover illustrates more than anything else the challenges she faces over the next few months. Her election – by a decisive 72 per cent of the vote – also highlights just how different Scottish politics is from that in the rest of the UK. Now two of Scotland’s main opposition parties will be led by women (the other being the Scottish Tory leader Ruth Davidson)... Читать дальше...

Ever since Thailand graduated from backpacker haven to mainstream tourist destination in the 1970s, the nation has maintained two very different faces. For many visitors, the country lives up the “Land of Smiles” tag and the promise of carefree holidays from trekking to spa treatments. But a less-appealing dimension is the chronic political turmoil centred on Bangkok and the long-standing insurgency in the deep, troubled south of Thailand.

Quietly, hardly noticed by the world at large, one of our best-loved small songbirds is sliding inexorably towards extinction, and the cause is almost certainly pesticides. But no one is making the connection.

In politics, what appears to be happening is almost always the opposite of what is actually happening. The illusion is especially powerful in August, when the rhythms are less familiar than the rest of the year. During these long summer days, the prevailing narrative is that the Government commands the stage and will do so for at least 10 years. Recently, I had a conversation with a Conservative MP – a bright member of the new intake – in which he wondered whether his party might rule for as long as it did after 1979. Читать дальше...

It will be news to precisely zero loyal subscribers to Amazon Prime that their retail habit is not 100 per cent ethical – and this was before recent reports of Amazon Fulfilment Site workers weeping at their desks while they stacked up profits in order to fund Jeremy Clarkson’s latest diesel-centred, dick-swinging TV jaunt.

Dear Virginia

Talking about your vagina is a conundrum that starts in childhood and seemingly never ends. I’m 27 years old and I’ll blog heartily about boobs and pubic hair. I’ll throw the C-word around with wild abandon and I’ll debate the politics of periods with anyone who’ll listen. But a few years ago, I didn’t know how to talk about my vagina.

The gap between the richest and the rest of us is less of a gap, more an interplanetary divide. Executive pay, in particular, has reached dizzying heights, stretching far away from the salaries of the mere mortals they employ.

Once the honeymoon days are over, it is perhaps understandable that a couple's desire for each other will not be at identically feverish levels at all times.

Upon turning eighteen, new adults like myself hasten to enjoy the things we’ve been deprived of during our childhood. Handing our ID to the barman for our first pint is a big one. Placing bets at the bookies’ is another milestone.

“Dear Johnny. I'm so sorry to have to write to you...” started another letter from an ex-colleague. “As a proud soldier and a committed family man, this is something entirely new to me, but we cannot go on prescribing something to our blokes that is clearly having a significant negative effect on their mental health. Please do what you can.”

Well, we had you fooled, didn’t we? You thought we were sitting quietly in a corner, nibbling our rice cakes, when in fact we were living it large, stuffing ourselves with pizzas and pasties. We’d be laughing uproariously right now if our mouths weren’t so full of Battenberg.

Women are more and more likely to identify as “bisexual” or “no label” if they are attracted to other women – and less likely to use the old-time favourite “lesbian”.

Science has finally proved that spending your Friday night in the company of your cat is good for you. Happiness is determined by the quality - not the quantity - of friendships you have in your thirties, according to a new study published in the American journal Psychology and Aging. This is good to hear for introverts who, like me, typically have fewer friends that they’re very close to.

In a world where sex blasts out from adverts and magazines and the romantic relationships of others is standard office gossip, managing to be “asexual” seems a pretty tall order.

I enjoyed the former Prime Minister’s speech yesterday, including the way his walk up and down synchronised with the rising and falling of a fairground merry-go-round behind him, with the clock of Big Ben and the unobservable turning of the London Eye, also in the background, providing a sarcastic meta-commentary about the passing of time.

In May, the British press – including this newspaper – made the colossal error of believing the polls. Right up until the exit polls on election night, we thought there was a chance that Labour would gain power. In fact, the Tories won a majority. Now, barely three months later, we’re doing the same thing again: letting those pompous pollsters dictate the agenda.

A "White Man March" led by the far-right group National Action was quickly disbanded in Liverpool on Saturday. According to reports, the neo-Nazis were vastly outnumbered by anti-fascists demonstrators. This is great, although when I first heard that the march was happening, I couldn't help but feel sceptical as to why it was being permitted by the city in the first place.

The UK has built something special in the BBC. That’s what our audience surveys tell us. It is a very British institution with an enduring mission which countries around the world respect and would love to call their own. It’s certainly not perfect. But it is something of real and lasting value. It informs us. It educates us. It entertains us. It creates economic wealth through support for key industries like music and television production and plays a critical role in the UK’s position as a creative powerhouse. Читать дальше...

“Guns don’t kill people, people kill people,” argue opponents of gun control in America. Tax economists have their own, analogous, rallying slogan: “Companies don’t pay tax, people do.”