Tag Archives: United states of America

Paul Walter

Can you guess what this parliamentary appurtenance is?

By Paul Walter | Wed 27th September 2017 - 11:55 am


In the UK, we’re used to elements of the Palace of Westminster reflecting past goings-on. The two sides of the House of Commons are seperated by enough space to accomodate the length of two swords. And there are little red silk loops for each MP to hang their sword in outside the chamber.

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Posted in LDVUSA | 7 Comments
Paul Walter

Nigel Farage proves that he is the ultimate media tart

By Paul Walter | Tue 26th September 2017 - 8:09 pm

My photo, taken last week, of the Alabama State Capitol in Montgomery, through the water of the fountain in Court Square, where Black slaves were bought and sold.

I have to say that the news that Nigel Farage is backing an extreme right-wing candidate in a Republican primary (mark that: it’s a party primary – not even a general election!) in Alabama, USA takes secure possession of a whole plethora of biscuits. Does this man stop at nothing to get some media coverage?

I was in Alabama this time last week, so I feel the urge to comment on this, if not having the qualification of detailed knowledge of the situation.

First of all, Farage is taking no risks here. Roy Moore, the candidate he is speaking for tonight, is going to win the Republican nomination for the US Senate seat which was vacated by Jeff Sessions when he became US Attorney General. So Farage is saddling up on a horse which is already going to win.

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Posted in Op-eds | Also tagged , and | 12 Comments
Paul Walter

Public funding for the arts should be cut during a recession, right?

By Paul Walter | Fri 21st April 2017 - 5:45 pm

Grant Wood - American Gothic - Google Art Project

Well, er, no. “America after the fall – Painting in the 1930s” is an exhibition at the Royal Academy of Arts which breathtakingly displays how public funding for the arts during a depression (let alone a recession) can work wonders. As part of President Roosevelt’s “New Deal”, the Federal Arts Project employed artists to create visual art works, which eventually included over a hundred thousand paintings as well as many sculptures and other works. Artists who benefited included Jackson Pollock. There were other New Deal art projects such as the Public Works of Art project, the Section of Painting and Sculpture and the Treasury Relief Art Project.

All these programmes helped to produce an extraordinary decade for American Art, which is reflected brilliantly in the Royal Academy exhibition, on until June 4th in Piccadilly, London.

What comes over is that the decade established a distinctive American Art world, which was finally free of reference to art elsewhere. There is an extraordinary variety of styles producing a most colourful and impactful exhibition, reflecting the profound changes going on in the USA at the time.

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Posted in The Arts | Also tagged and | 8 Comments
Paul Walter

Donald Trump is a dangerous and complete joke – but the joke is on the American people

By Paul Walter | Sun 5th March 2017 - 1:05 pm

I give you this series of early morning tweets from the President of the United States of America, as collated by Taegan Goddard’s Political Wire:

Terrible! Just found out that Obama had my “wires tapped” in Trump Tower just before the victory. Nothing found. This is McCarthyism!

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Posted in Op-eds | Also tagged | 19 Comments
Paul Walter

The Trump story that takes the biscuit – until the next one that takes it…

By Paul Walter | Thu 9th February 2017 - 10:55 am

I’m going to sound callous but I do believe that perhaps the only plus point of a Trump Presidency is its comedy value. Viewing figures for the US late night shows are booming.

I thought we had reached the pinnacle of Trump comedy with the story of how he appeared, in front of a cross-party gathering of Congressional leaders at the White House, to base his call for an investigation into voter fraud on a conversation with German golfer Bernard Langer.

But yesterday there came a story which really takes the biscuit. At 3am one morning, local time, President Trump phoned his national security adviser to ask whether a strong or weak dollar was best for the American economy.

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Posted in Op-eds | Also tagged and | 31 Comments
Christine Jardine MP

A little part of who I am is struggling to survive

By Christine Jardine MP | Mon 30th January 2017 - 8:00 pm

 

I feel as if a little part of who I am is struggling to survive. A little part that has been nurtured and has grown since, as a teenager, I marvelled at the liberal values and writings of Robert Kennedy and Dr Martin Luther King.

It’s the part that grew up regarding US history as testament that a people can use lessons of a divided past to create a society that offers opportunity for all.

And it’s the same part of me that’s always been so proud that I have family amongst those tired and huddled masses who were welcomed with open arms to a nation founded on that simple, yet beautiful, declaration:

“We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal.”

That’s the promise of the United States. A promise to which so many have trusted their futures, and their dreams. But it’s a promise that today seems under threat.

Perhaps not all are equally welcome.

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Posted in Op-eds | 7 Comments
Paul Walter

What happened to the lamp beside the golden door?

By Paul Walter | Sun 29th January 2017 - 10:17 am

The Telegraph reports:

Mr Trump signed an executive order closing US borders to all refugees for a period of at least four months and temporarily banning all travellers from half a dozen countries, regardless of whether they have already been issued visas…

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Posted in Op-eds | Also tagged and | 9 Comments
Scott Craig

Thirty-seven Americans have the power to change the course of history

By Scott Craig | Mon 19th December 2016 - 9:11 am

 

Today, the US Electoral College will meet in 51 separate locations to decide who will become the next President of the United States. The decision these individual men and women make will determine the outcome of every significant global event for the next decade, if not the next century.

Earlier this year, on 4th August, the Harvard Republican Club issued a press release stating that, for the first time in their one hundred and twenty-eight year history, they would not be endorsing the Republican nominee for president.  The presumptive nominee, they said, was not just unfit to be president but represented, “a threat to the survival of the republic”.

They went on to say that, “His authoritarian tendencies and flirtations with fascism are unparalleled in the history of our democracy.” and that, “He hopes to divide us by race, by class, and by religion, instilling enough fear and anxiety to propel himself to the White House”. This approach, with a little assistance from foreign hackers, has brought him within touching distance of the White House.

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Posted in Op-eds | Also tagged and | 13 Comments
Paul Walter

The USA: The clue is in the title – and it is the greatest example of pooled sovereignity between states

By Paul Walter | Sat 23rd April 2016 - 10:50 am

Four of the USA’s founding fathers: (l to r) Adams, Morris, Hamilton, Jefferson

There was a rather strange moment on Thursday’s BBC Question Time. There was a discussion about President Obama’s intervention in the EU referendum debate.

Liam Fox was waxing lyrically about how the USA has great democracy, and all we want is the same democracy ourselves without our country being, he posited, controlled by “Brussels”.

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Posted in Op-eds | Also tagged | 40 Comments
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