by | Jul 26, 2024 | The Guardian
The horrors of the war in Gaza, and the Israeli prime minister’s conduct and rhetoric, are spurring shifts in policies overseas
The multiple standing ovations that Benjamin Netanyahu
this week, on his first trip abroad since the Hamas attack of 7 October, must have rung hollow even to his ears. The problem was not merely the distraction of the US political class by Joe Biden’s abandonment of his re-election bid, and Kamala Harris’s ascension. Almost half of House and Senate Democrats boycotted his address to Congress. Many instead met relatives of hostages, who are furious at Mr Netanyahu for failing to reach a ceasefire agreement. Nancy Pelosi described his speech as by far the worst by any foreign dignitary at the Capitol.
The Israeli prime minister is used to unpopularity: around 70% of Israelis
he has not done enough to win the hostages’ release; a similar number want him to resign. But abroad, he bears much of the responsibility for a decisive shift in attitudes towards his country as well as himself, even in its staunchest ally.
by | Jul 26, 2024 | The Guardian
The duty of care must be taken more seriously as illusion meets the tough reality of the dancefloor
The new political dawn, when the BBC might have hoped for at least a brief period of tranquillity, came to an abrupt end with the double whammy of a scandal on one of its flagship programmes, Strictly Come Dancing, and
which revealed that half a million households had cancelled their licence fee last year. Though there is no direct link between the two the coincidence demonstrates the delicate line the corporation is treading in terms of keeping itself match fit and beyond criticism in an era of proliferating competition and sniping social media.
For the last 20 years, Strictly Come Dancing has been one of the pillars on which the BBC has been able to lean in demonstrating its capacity to entertain multiple generations simultaneously, while reflecting their own diversity back to them as something to be celebrated, with stars excelling regardless of age, physical disability, ethnicity or sexual orientation.
by | Jul 26, 2024 | The Guardian
Brian Cookson says support for organised sport in the UK needs a radical rethink and a substantial boost
It was fascinating to read about the support available for grassroots sport in France and to compare it with the situation in this country (
). Here, elite level Olympic sport is well funded but, in many sports, club level sport is dying on its feet.
As a nation we have commodified sport and made it something that is too expensive to organise and thus too expensive for many people to participate in. We have to change that before it’s too late. Current initiatives that focus on active lifestyles are right and proper, but support for organised sport needs a radical rethink and a substantial boost. I hope that Lisa Nandy, the secretary of state for culture, media and sport, will address this issue as a matter of urgency.
Brian Cookson
Chair, Active Lancashire
by | Jul 26, 2024 | The Guardian
by | Jul 26, 2024 | The Guardian
Outsiders can’t fathom his success. But Trump’s supporters believe his gaffes and misdemeanours prove he’s ‘one of them’
There is no such thing as a universal leader. Leaders always represent a specific social group: a political party, a religion or a social movement. The more they are loved by insiders, the more such adulation seems bizarre and inexplicable to outsiders – to the extent that we often dismiss adoring followers as deluded or deplorable in some way. Think Margaret Thatcher, or Jeremy Corbyn, or Boris Johnson.
But perhaps the greatest enigma of contemporary politics concerns
– a man who elicits messianic fever and revulsion in equal measure. A liar and serial philanderer championed by evangelists;
supported by “law and order” enthusiasts; a man who boasts of groping women and yet was elected with a
; a billionaire who likes posing in the golden lift of his New York skyscraper while also posing as the champion of the working class. How on earth does any of this make sense? Yet, at the same time, how can Kamala Harris – if, as is near-certain, she is crowned the Democratic nominee – hope to win in November unless she is able to make sense of it?
by | Jul 26, 2024 | The Guardian
Tory MPs opposed to this human right have been swept away. On Friday in the Lords, a path towards choice will finally be set
Every Labour government forges ahead with life-changing liberal reforms, and this one will be no exception. Expect the right to die to be one of this government’s landmarks, removing one of the last barriers to freedom over our own bodies. Everyone must die, but the greatest dread is exiting the world through a torture chamber. Once assured that we need never bear the unbearable, death would lose much of its sting.
While other countries allow the mortally ill to be released from the last stages of life if they wish, the British have been denied that choice, mainly by the power of religious lobbies. Only God can decide how long we should suffer before death comes at a time of his pitiless whim, they say. Humanists UK has tussled with them for years on this. Yet faith campaigners have defeated a change in the law time and again, despite religion being a fading preoccupation.
Polly Toynbee is a Guardian columnist
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