The Londoner

In the general European euphoria over the election of Barack Obama, there is the beginning of self-reflection about Europe's own troubles with racial integration. Many are asking if there could be a French, British, German or Italian Obama, and everyone knows the answer is no, not anytime soon. I'm far from an expert on European integration, but I know enough about the standards of journalism to know that objective reporters who aren't supposed to take sides on a question don't use a phrase like "everyone knows the answer is no" unless…well, unless everyone really does know the answer is no. So that's saying something. I closed my election-night video blog with a similar thought as to America's unique capacity for such an outcome among the world's advanced, majority-white democracies, which generated some mild protests on the comment thread. One person suggested that Scots in the UK were numerically about equivalent to blacks in America and yet Bri

I have been thinking about the election of Barack Obama as the President of United States of America and how it will effect the future of not only US but its closest ally; Great Britain. Although race relations in this country are not as bad as they were or are in the US but still there is a strong undercurrent of racism which prevails in the UK. Racism in UK is a special kind as it seldom discriminate among job applicants at most levels and on the whole due to government legislation is quite fair when it comes to the relationship between the citizen and the state/state’s representatives. Social racism is the prevailing fact in this country where people from different races very seldom have friendships between them. Whites, Browns, Blacks, Chinese etc have there own social circles in which they live their entire lives. My assertion here is more to do with the middle class mainly (upper classes and working classes have their own set of rules) because middle class in this country makes u

FREE markets are not popular at the moment, and Britain is home to more than most. Known for its famous—or infamous—“light-touch” regulation of financial services, it is a pioneer in other areas too, with one of the most liberalised energy markets in the world. Supporters argue that this has allowed Britons to enjoy low energy prices for over a decade. Detractors say it has led to price swings, robbed the government of direct influence over energy policy and made grand plans for expanding nuclear power and renewable energy hostage to the hard-nosed decisions of profit-seeking private firms. So there were sighs of relief in official circles at the announcement on September 24th that EDF, a French power giant, would pay £12.5 billion ($23.2 billion) to buy British Energy, the firm that runs most of Britain’s remaining nuclear-power plants. The deal had stalled in July when two of British Energy’s biggest shareholders argued that EDF’s offer undervalued the firm in an era of high oil pric

Thousands of high-flying white youngsters are giving up maths and science at 16 because they think they are not clever enough to succeed atA-Level, according to a report published today. The report reveals that white children who achieve A* and A grade passes at GCSE are far less likely than other ethnic groups to pursue the subjects to A-Level. According to what is being billed as a "state of the nation" report on maths and science by The Royal Society, white youngsters are "known to develop the idea that success in mathematics comes from being naturally gifted". By contrast, Asian and Chinese youths, says the report, are more likely to believe that success comes from hard work. It also warns that overall take-up of the subjects has fallen during the past decade. That means ministers are unlikely to reach targets they have set for qualified scientists and mathematicians to enable the UK to compete with other countries. "In chemistry, Pakistani students are 7.2

Britain is facing "arguably the worst" economic downturn in 60 years which will be "more profound and long-lasting" than people had expected, Alistair Darling, the chancellor, tells the Guardian today. In the government's gravest assessment of the economy, which follows a warning from a Bank of England policymaker that 2 million people could be out of work by Christmas, Darling admits he had no idea how serious the credit crunch would become. His blunt remarks lay bare the unease in the highest ranks of the cabinet that the downturn is making it all but impossible for Gordon Brown to recover momentum after a series of setbacks. His language is much starker than the tone adopted by the prime minister, who aims to revive his premiership this autumn by explaining how he will help struggling families through the downturn. The chancellor, who says that Labour faces its toughest challenge in a generation, admits that Brown and the cabinet are partly to blame for Labou

This is a question which is making me uncomfortable and every day tabloids especially and broadsheets generally are accusing him for everything which is happening in this country. Why the destiny of this great country being decided by hateful, vengeful papers like daily mail and in the case of Ken Livingston, Express which called him anti-Semitic and constructed a web of lies to make sure that general public becomes blinded by their campaign of hate. Coming back to the question of Gordon Brown, he has been accused of changing his mind on the 10p tax issue but at the same time Tony Blair was accused of not listening on many issues. Electorate cannot have it both ways; either you want to have a prime minister who listens or someone who does not. I believe that Tories are not yet ready for the business of government not at least until they put there policies in front of the electorate and then let them decide. There is another factor at play as well and that is of fatigue. In most western

By Sikander Hayat There is over emphasis in the British media about the implementation of sharia law in Uk. The debate has been started by a Christian but Muslims have been entangled in the resultiing fiasco. First of all, the law in discussion will not apply to any non muslim so any scare mongering on that front is completely wrong. Saying that, I as a Muslim do not want any parts of sharia law to be implemented in UK for the following reasons. Muslims who live in UK have come from countures where sometimes freedoms are curtailed, so they do not want that repeated in this country as well. Any changes to the current UK law should only happen as they ussually happen. When a part of law is found to be redundant, it is replaced with another sensible law which takes its crdence from the pople of the country , not some devine power. I belive in God, but I do not belive in an Islamic, Christain ,Jewish or for that matter God belonging to any any organized form of religion. This so called G