WASHINGTON—The Bring Them Home president had barely finished speaking at West Point on Wednesday before the critiques rained down, drenching Barack Obama’s first major foreign policy speech of the postwar era in fresh doubts. Too weak by half was the verdict of hawks like David Frum, who questioned Obama’s “ remarkably passive view of his office ” in an era of compounding...
Despite a nearly broken finger suffered the night before, Dioner Navarro arrived inside the Blue Jays ’ clubhouse Wednesday afternoon beaming as brightly as his all-white ensemble. He wasn’t 100 per cent and maybe should have taken the day off, but the catcher said he was having too much fun not to be in the lineup. “Eddie hitting bombs, Melky hitting five hits a day, Reyes stealing...
When news broke last week that 34 NDP supporters were threatening to break with the Ontario party, leader Andrea Horwath’s loyalists swung into action. The Gang of 34, the loyalists said, didn’t represent real New Democrats. They were old, bitter and out of date — champagne socialists holding onto a past that is no longer valid. “Too bad the NDP 34 won’t put down...
The claim : Defending his plan to cut 100,000 Ontario public service jobs in four years, Progressive Conservative Leader Tim Hudak recently said “but you know how many people are on the public payroll in Ontario today? 1.1 million.” Trimming 100,000 would return Ontario to 2009 levels, which is “fair, reasonable and balanced,” he said. The background : Among his proposed...
Toronto is moving to turf the Sony Centre board in the wake of a scathing audit of the city-owned theatre, which has seen renovation costs balloon to $40 million from $28.5 million with minimal city oversight. City council’s audit committee recommended Wednesday that the 13-member board be replaced by an interim six-person body that would pick a new chief executive officer for the downtown...
The party would perform no better under Cable, and Lib Dem voters and the party's 2010 supporters want him to stay. Nick Clegg visits Saint Andrews Youth Club in Westminster yesterday. Photograph: Getty Images. After two days of uncertainty, Nick Clegg's position as Lib Dem leader is beginning to look secure ( as I predicted it would). The constituency polls commissioned by the treacherous Lord...
The day when someone in the richest 10 per cent stops contributing to tax is nearly a month earlier than someone in the poorest 10 per cent. George Osborne holds freshly minted coins during a visit to the Royal Mint in Llantrisant, Wales on March 25, 2014. Photograph: Getty Images. Today the Adam Smith Institute is marking this year’s " Tax Freedom Day ". For those unfamiliar with the concept, "Tax...
Low expectations remain for the government's flagship welfare reform as a watchdog deems it a high risk of failure. Was the report deliberately released amid coverage of the local elections to avoid bad publicity? Iain Duncan Smith. Photo: Dan Kitwood, Getty Images After chronic delays, multi-million pound write-offs and the emergence of major design flaws, Universal Credit was hit last week by the...
"Appropriate steps" will be taken against the rebellious peer. Liberal Democrat peer Lord Oakeshott. Photograph: BBC News. After Lord Oakeshott was unmasked as the man behind a poll suggesting that he would lose his seat, Nick Clegg has just given his first response at a press conference following his speech on international development. He described the behaviour of Vince Cable's ally as "wholly...
Peer leaves the party and warns it is "heading for disaster" under Clegg. After Nick Clegg warned this morning that "appropriate steps" would be taken against Lord Oakeshott for leaking a poll that suggested he would lose his seat, the Lib Dem peer has just resigned his membership of the party. You can read his statement in full below. Of note is that Oakeshott has dragged his old ally Vince Cable,...
Lib Dem peer says his efforts to "expose and end cash-for-peerages in all parties, including our own" have failed. Nick Clegg gives a speech on International Development at The Village Hall in Hoxton Square on May 28, 2014. Photograph: Getty Images. Having had time to digest Lord Oakeshott's resignation statement , it turns out to have been even more revelatory than first thought. In the final paragraph,...
As a party leader celebrated for being straight-talking dominates the political agenda while our potential future prime minister can’t stop talking like a wonk, it’s time to call our politicians out on their mealy-mouthed mumblings. Our politicians don't "get it" on speaking plainly. Photo: Getty There is no place for "got" or "get" in the English language, my grandmother often tells me. Her theory...
Who runs the No campaign and why are they trying to insult me? Better Together activists campaign on the doors in the Cowcaddens on March 18, 2014 in Glasgow, Scotland. Photograph: Getty Images. Like thousands of other Scots over the weekend, I received an extra dose of referendum propaganda with my Sunday papers. It came in the form of a glossy little booklet containing, apparently, "the facts [I...
The party president is the only major figure to have been untainted by coalition and by allegations of plotting. Tim Farron speaks during the Liberal Democrat conference in Birmingham in 2011. Photograph: Getty Images. If Vince Cable was once a plausible caretaker leader for the Lib Dems, he isn't any longer. The revelation from his old friend Lord Oakeshott that he was aware of polling he commissioned...
Blue Labour's values of community and solidarity are the key to winning back alienated working class voters from Ukip. Ed Miliband, accompanied by Jon Cruddas, addresses an audience at 'The Backstage Centre' on May 27, 2014 in Purfleet. Photograph: Getty Images. This was supposed to be Ed Miliband’s great moment. Labour figures had long awaited the May elections as an event that would see him confirmed...
Deployment in South Korea of a new U.S. missile defense system would unnecessarily raise regional tensions, China said....
Edward Snowden and top Obama administration officials continued lobbing intercontinental taunts at one another, showing little sign of an end to their hostilities....
Obama administration initiatives intended to help restrain soaring college costs are facing resistance from schools and from a bipartisan bloc of lawmakers looking to protect institutions in their districts....
Michigan Gov. Rick Snyder signed a law late Tuesday to lift the state's minimum wage to $9.25 an hour by 2018, making it the seventh state to approve an increase this year—the first led by a Republican....
After years of bashing the Affordable Care Act, conservative House Republicans are pushing for a vote on a GOP health-care plan to show they have a policy position beyond repealing the current law....