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Tuesday, December 23, 2014

Could this landmark animal rights ruling spell the end of zoos?



My piece from today's Daily Express.

IT'S a landmark judgment that could mark the beginning of the end for the world’s zoos.
It could also potentially lead to thousands of animals held in captivity being released into the wild. 
A court in Argentina has ruled that a 29-year-old Sumatran orangutan called Sandra – who has been in captivity in a Buenos Aires zoo for 20 years – is a “nonhuman person” and entitled to more freedom after an animal rights group filed a writ demanding her release. 
“This opens the way not only for other great apes but also for other sentient beings which are unfairly and arbitrarily deprived of their liberty in zoos, circuses, water parks and scientific laboratories,” Paul Muompadre, the lawyer for Afada, the organisation that brought the legal action, told reporters. 
Subject to any appeal Sandra will be on her way to a nature sanctuary in Brazil. 
The repercussions of the case could be enormous as it is likely to encourage other animal rights groups to bring similar actions....

You can read the whole article here 

Monday, December 22, 2014

Australia’s interventionist foreign policy- time for a rethink

My latest OpEdge piece for RT.com

The tragic Sydney café siege of earlier this week, which resulted in the death of three people, raises quite a few serious questions.
Why on earth was Man Haron Monis, the hostage taker who faced more than 40 sexual assault and indecency charges, and who had been charged with being an accessory to the murder of his ex-wife, still at liberty? Why did the Australian authorities refuse to send Monis back to Iran, his home country, who it has been reported, repeatedly requested his extradition via Interpol to answer charges of fraud? And why wasn‘t a man who had sent hate mail to the grieving families of members of the Australian armed forces who had been killed in action and who had publicly pledged his allegiance to the Islamic State, under any form of monitoring by Australia‘s security services?
These questions are very important and need to be answered pretty quickly, but there‘s something else we ought to be discussing too...

You can read the whole article here.

Sunday, December 14, 2014

What could Ukraine learn from South Africa?



My latest piece for RT.com OpEdge

One year on from the death of Madiba - Nelson Mandela - South Africa still has lessons for other countries about political reconciliation, and particularly for right-wing anti-Russian nationalists in Ukraine.

It’s a warm and sunny day in Cape Town and we’re standing in front of the statue of Jan Smuts, the former Prime Minister of South Africa

Smuts is a controversial figure among South Africans, our guide Errol tells us. On the one hand he was a racialist who believed in the superiority of white people and who supported segregation. On the other hand, he was a nature lover and conservationist who did much to protect and preserve South Africa’s amazing flora.

You can read the whole piece here.

Friday, December 12, 2014

The True Scandal- Tony Blair still awaits the Nobel Peace Prize



My parody piece for Sputnik News...

The usual hysterical 'anti-war' voices are attacking the Global Legacy award given by Save the Children to Tony Blair. We should ignore them. The scandal is not that his great humanitarian work has finally been recognised, but that Mr Blair has not yet been awarded the Nobel Peace Prize.
It’s a baffling omission for no man on this planet — save perhaps George W. Bush or Benjamin Netanyahu — deserves it more...

You can read the whole piece here.

Monday, December 08, 2014

From Democracy to Autonocracy: How Dr Who's Nightmare Came True in Britain



My new piece for Sputnik News.

In a recent episode of Dr Who Jon Pertwee successfully foils a dastardly plan of the Nestene - a non-physical alien intelligence - to replace leading political and public figures in Britain with plastic replicas.
The Nestene take over a toy factory in Epping, where they manufacture the plastic 'Autons'- who will help them take over the country.
That Dr Who story 'Spearhead from Space' got me thinking. When it was first broadcast in 1970 we could easily have told the difference between our leading politicians and a bunch of automatons. You could agree or disagree with them, but no one could accuse Harold Wilson, Edward Heath, Tony Benn or Enoch Powell of being robotic...

You can read the whole piece here.

Wednesday, November 19, 2014

Stranger than Fiction- the extraordinary story of Edgar Wallace



You can listen to an interview with me on BBC Radio Oxford, talking about my new book 'Stranger than Fiction- The Life of Edgar Wallace'- here. The interview starts at 2hrs 6mins.

I'm confused, can anyone help me? (Part Three)



Guess what- I'm still confused. The latest in my series for RT.com OpEdge.

I’m confused. The first thing I’m confused about is democratic legitimacy after elections are held in war-torn countries.

You can read the whole piece here
 

Let's make Public Ownership the election deal breaker


My latest Public Ownership column for the Morning Star.


NEIL CLARK assesses the insurgent parties’ policies on nationalisation – and offers a voting strategy to strike fear into every MP





 
 
 
IN the Morning Star last month I looked at what the Conservatives, Liberal Democrats, Labour and Ukip had to offer us in relation to public ownership. Or to be more accurate, what they didn’t have to offer us.

Another five years of the present coalition — or a Conservative majority government — will mean the end of the NHS and see the sell-off of the remaining assets in public ownership, including Britain’s main trunk roads.

So, if you do want to see Richard Branson or some other billionaire capitalist in charge of the M1, as well as rail routes, hospital services and the Met Office), our publicly owned woodlands flogged off to the highest bidder and our libraries either closed or run by US multinationals, then simply vote Conservative or Lib Dem.

You can read the whole piece here.







 


 

Wednesday, November 12, 2014

Heatwave at Halloween

My new piece for Sputnik UK- the new site of Voice of Russia

During one of the warmest British autumns on record, with the temperature touching 24C on Halloween day politicians from the country’s main parties conspicuously dropped all talk about climate change and the environment.
It's Christmas Day 2035 in Britain and the temperature is a balmy 22 degrees Celcius. The evening news shows pictures of people sunbathing on the beach in Bournemouth. Christmas barbecues are held throughout the country. People attend church services in short-sleeves. Sounds a bit fetched? Perhaps. But then, twenty-odd years ago, so too would the prospect of people enjoying a day on the beach in temperatures of over 20C on Halloween.

You can read the whole of the piece here.

Sunday, November 09, 2014

Vladimir Putin- demonised for thwarting the neocon plan for global domination.

My latest piece for RT.com OpEdge- on why western elites are demonising the Russian President- and want you to hate him too.

The continuing attacks on Vladimir Putin and Russia by members of the western political, military and journalistic elite tell us one thing – the Russian President is doing a good job both for the people of his country and in the international arena.
For it is a rule which invariably holds true – if the Western elites praise the leader of a foreign country it means he is doing something which is good for those elites and bad for his country. If he’s demonized, as Putin is, it’s the other way round.

You can read the whole piece here.

The Bullying of Hungary- the country that dared to disobey the EU and US



My new piece for RT.com OpEdge on the bullying of Hungary.

25 years ago, Hungary was being toasted in the West for opening its border with Austria to East Germans, in a move which led to the fall of the Berlin Wall. Now the Western elites are not happy with Budapest which they consider far too independent.
The refusal of Prime Minister Viktor Orban and his ruling Fidesz party to join the new US and EU Cold War against Russia, which has seen the Hungarian parliament approving a law to build the South Stream gas pipeline without the approval of the European Union, in addition to the populist economic policies Fidesz has adopted against the largely foreign owned banks and energy companies, has been met with an angry response from Washington and Brussels.

The whole of the piece can be read here.  

Tally ho! The elite's new bloodsport: Russell Brand-hunting



My piece for RT.Com OpEdge on the attacks by members of the Elite Journos Club on Russell Brand.

Fox hunting is no longer legal in Britain. But there’s a new blood sport this autumn - Russell Brand hunting.
Members of the ‘hegemonic consensus’ supporting Elite Journos Club have been competing with one another to see who can write the most condescending and ‘eviscerating’ reviews/articles on Brand and his new book ‘Revolution’.
Brand was acceptable when he was doing stand-up comedy and keeping off the politics, but now that he’s dissing the British system of parliamentary democracy and calling for radical change it’s open season on him. It’s a case of “Set the hounds on that bearded ‘semi-literate’ hippy! Tally ho!”

You can read the whole article  here.

The Glory that was Crossroads....

This new piece of mine on the classic soap opera Crossroads, from the  Daily Express. 

It was the soap opera set in a Midlands motel than ran for 24 years and in its heyday was more popular than Coronation Street.
Crossroads may have disappeared from our television screens but the much-loved and often much-derided series is far from forgotten.
This week sees the 50th anniversary of the broadcasting of the first ever episode and to mark the occasion the surviving stars of the soap will be reunited on the Paul O’Grady Show on BBC Radio 2.

You can read the whole piece here.

Saturday, November 01, 2014

Don't Watch RT!



As RT UK launches, attacks on the channel in the British media have stepped up…
The latest is a piece by Mr. Cyril Waugh-Monger, a very important newspaper columnist for the NeoCon Daily, a patron of the Senator Joe McCarthy Appreciation Society and author of 'Why the Iraq War was a Brilliant Idea' and 'The Humanitarian Case for Bombing Syria.'

Read here for more......

Red scarecrows: RT UK launches, mainstream trolls



New interview with me on RT on the neocon/ 'liberal interventionist' McCarthyite attacks on the channel.

Harold Wilson: The Russophile at Number 10



Imagine a British Prime Minister who was a Russophile, not a Russophobe, and defied US pressure to send UK troops to war. A British Prime Minister who worked for better relations with the East, visited Moscow, and was on good terms with Kremlin leaders.
Well, it might sound unlikely today, but forty years ago we had such a Prime Minister. In October 1974, Harold Wilson was puffing away merrily on his pipe celebrating his fourth election victory out of five.
Looking back at the Wilson era is instructive as it shows us how much British politics has changed for the worse since the 1970s.

You can read the whole of my article on Harold Wilson: The Russophile at Number 10, here

Wednesday, October 22, 2014

Stranger than Fiction- The Life of Edgar Wallace by Neil Clark



SIGNED COPIES OF MY NEW BOOK
STRANGER THAN FICTION- THE LIFE OF EDGAR WALLACE, PUBLISHED BY THE HISTORY PRESS, CAN BE ORDERED ON THE FORM ON THE TOP RIGHT. CHOOSE IF YOU WANT YOUR SIGNED COPY SENT TO A UK, EUROPEAN OR WORLDWIDE ADDRESS, AND CLICK ON 'ADD TO CART' TO PURCHASE


STRANGER THAN FICTION
THE MOST INCREDIBLE TRUE-LIFE STORY YOU’LL EVER READ!

HE WAS THE AUTHOR OF OVER 170 BOOKS, TRANSLATED INTO MORE THAN THIRTY LANGUAGES. MORE FILMS WERE MADE OF HIS BOOKS THAN ANY OTHER TWENTIETH-CENTURY WRITER….
EDGAR WALLACE, THE ILLEGITIMATE SON OF A TRAVELLING ACTRESS, ROSE FROM POVERTY IN VICTORIAN ENGLAND TO BECOME THE MOST POPULAR AUTHOR IN THE WORLD AND A GLOBAL CELEBRITY OF HIS AGE.
HE SCOOPED THE SIGNING OF THE BOER WAR PEACE TREATY WHEN WORKING AS A WAR CORRESPONDENT, BEFORE ACHIEVING SUCCESS AS A FILM DIRECTOR AND PLAYWRIGHT.
AT THE HEIGHT OF HIS SUCCESS, HE WAS EARNING A VAST FORTUNE, BUT THE MONEY WENT OUT AS FAST AS IT CAME IN. FAMOUS FOR HIS THRILLERS, WITH THEIR FANTASTIC PLOTS, IN MANY WAYS EDGAR WALLACE DID NOT WRITE HIS MOST EXCITING STORY- HE LIVED IT.

‘IT IS IMPOSSIBLE NOT TO BE THRILLED BY EDGAR WALLACE,‘ SAID THE BLURB ON WALLACE’S BOOKS. INDEED, IT IS IMPOSSIBLE NOT TO BE THRILLED BY HIS RAGS-TO-RICHES STORY, TOLD HERE IN STRANGER THAN FICTION!

Monday, October 20, 2014

Can Labour recreate its election success of 40 years ago?



My new politics column for Voice of Russia UK.

......In the previously safe Labour seat of Heywood and Middleton, UKIP came within 600 odd votes of beating Labour. It was very poor result from a Labour perspective- and ironically came on the 40th anniversary of one of the party's most impressive victories- in the October 1974 general election. As Labour licked its wounds in Greater Manchester, BBC Parliament was showing a replay of the election night coverage from forty years ago. I hope Ed Miliband was watching- as there’s lots that Labour could learn from the stance his party took in 1974.

You can read the whole piece here.

Friday, October 17, 2014

Very vicious circle: UK govt hypes terror threat its policies create



My new piece for RT.com OpEdge.

If the UK government really sought to keep the nation safe from terrorism, it would stop meddling in the internal affairs of Mideast states instead of hyping the Islamic terror threat, and at the same time, doing everything for it to be in place.
Exactly 70 years ago this autumn, British civilians faced a very real terror threat - in the shape of Nazi Germany’s V-2 rockets. While exactly 40 years ago, an IRA bombing campaign brought ‘The Troubles’ of Northern Ireland to the British mainland.
What is interesting about the events of 1944 and 1974 is that the government downplayed the threat to citizens, even though the threat of being killed or injured in the violence was greater than it is now. A V-2 rocket attack, for instance, killed 160 shoppers on one occasion.
Today though, with Islamic terrorism, the opposite has happened.

You can read the whole piece here.

Thursday, October 16, 2014

Public Ownership: The Big Issue that could swing it come May 2015



My latest Public Ownership column for the Morning Star.

It’s one of the most popular policies that no major party will support – and Labour could win the election by backing nationalisation, says Neil Clark

It’s general election night. Labour are on course for victory, with a small majority. The Labour leader is asked by the BBC interviewer if the size of the majority will hinder his party’s legislative programme. 
“We shall carry out our programme — our manifesto,” the Labour leader replies. “We shall give priority of course to putting on the statute book all those things that we have said, like the public ownership of land…”
That exchange took place exactly 40 years ago after the election of October 10 1974. Public ownership was a topic that cropped up a lot in that election, but fast forward to 2014 and it’s a very different story.

You can read the whole piece here. 

Friday, October 03, 2014

The world’s wildlife is in peril and it’s time for urgent action

My new piece for RT.com OpEdge

While global attention is focused on IS, the so-called “terrorist threat,” and the US's latest military action in the Middle East, there was a news story this week which really should have been the lead story everywhere in the world.
The new Living Planet Report paints an alarming picture of the way the earth's wonderful wildlife is disappearing.
Populations of mammals, birds, reptiles, amphibians and fish have declined by a staggering 52 percent in the last forty years. 

You can read the whole piece here.

Thursday, October 02, 2014

Are British politicans too posh?- and does it matter?



Interview on this topic with me here on the Mike Parr show on BBC Tees.
Item starts at 10 minutes.

Monday, September 29, 2014

Why we need a new anti-war coalition of the left and right



My latest piece for RT.com OpEdge.

World War 1 began with an attack on Serbia by Austro-Hungary in 1914. Today’s ongoing World War 3 – of which the current US-led air strikes on Iraq and Syria are only the latest instalment – began with NATO’s attack on Serbia/Yugoslavia in 1999.
The subject of World War 1, its legacy and the new series of US-led wars of aggression which have marked the era of turbo-globalization, was discussed in depth at the International Science and Public Conference “The Great War and the Beginning of a New World: An up-to-date agenda for Humankind,”which was held in Belgrade, the capital city of Serbia, where World War I started 100 years ago.

You can read the whole article here.

Sunday, September 28, 2014

Forget napalm, 'President Wimp' loves the smell of coffee in the morning



My new piece for RT.com OpEdge.


Colonel Kilgore, in Coppola’s "Apocalypse Now," said he loved the smell of napalm in the morning. By way of contrast, US President Barack Obama, prefers the smell of coffee.

Kilgore liked to go surfing. Barack Obama prefers a leisurely round of golf. (Instead of ‘Charlie don’t surf!" try saying: ‘ISIS don’t putt!’ – It wouldn’t really cut it in the Marines.)

Kilgore liked the music of Richard Wagner, because it "scares the shit out of the slopes." Obama prefers Marvin Gaye.

Instead of President Macho, we’ve got President Wimp – or so we are led to believe.

You can read the whole of the article here.

Friday, September 26, 2014

Vaclav Klaus: 'Europe needs systemic change'. My interview with the ex-Czech PM and President



Václav Klaus has made a habit of saying things others shy away from saying, but it doesn’t seem to have done him much harm in the popularity stakes.

You can read the whole of my interview for The Spectator with the former Prime Minister & President of the Czech Republic, here.

Ryder Cup 2014: how the teams line up, player by player

 


The Ryder Cup starts today- here's my guide from The Week.

Golf is a game for solo stars. But then, once every two years, it becomes a team sport. On Friday, at Gleneagles in Perthshire, the best golfers from America and Europe will tee off in the 40th Ryder Cup.

What should we expect from three days of top-class golfing action?

You can read the whole of my preview,  here.

Thursday, September 18, 2014

Blame neoliberalism, not Salmond, if the UK breaks up

My latest piece for RT.com OpEdge- on today's Scottish Independence Referendum.

If Scotland does decide to leave the UK, we can be sure that the Westminster elite and anti-Scottish media commentators will be ready to blame Alex Salmond, Scotland’s first minister, and his SNP party for the historic break-up.

But in truth, the reason why so many believe Scotland’s best place is out of the UK is to do with a major political and economic shift which took place in Britain 35 years ago, and which has nothing to do with the SNP or its leader.

You can read the whole piece here.

Tuesday, September 16, 2014

The Intelligent Punter's Guide to the 2014/5 Champions League

My latest IP Guide from The Week.

The group stage of the UEFA Champions League begins this week. There are eight groups each consisting of four teams and the top two in each group will go through to the last 16.

Which teams are the best bets in this year's competition? Here are the key factors to bear in mind:

You can read the whole piece here.

Friday, September 05, 2014

​‘George Galloway attack is an attack on all dissenters’



My new column for RT.com OpEdge:

Members of Britain’s political and media elite failed to show outrage over the brutal street attack on 60-year old pro-Palestinian British MP George Galloway, and to condemn unequivocally the assault which led to Galloway’s hospitalization.

And that speaks volumes about the type of country Britain has become and how our democracy and the freedom to speak our minds on foreign policy issues has been eroded.

You can read the whole piece here.

Thursday, September 04, 2014

Crosstalk: Kiev in retreat



Above you can watch me on RT's Crosstalk programme, (recorded earlier this week), debating western coverage of the crisis in Ukraine.

Sunday, August 31, 2014

Taken for a Ride- why it's time to renationalise Britain's buses

My new Public Ownership column for the Morning Star.


Subsidies for private bus companies run into hundreds of millions and the service provided leaves a lot to be desired. Neil Clark explains why it’s time to renationalise the buses

You can read the whole piece here.

Friday, August 29, 2014

Tory Party Blues- all because they chose a Blair clone as their leader



My new piece for RT.com OpEdge on the troubles affecting the Conservative Party.


The defection of Tory MP Douglas Carswell to UKIP is undoubtedly a major blow for British Prime Minister David Cameron and the ruling Conservative Party.

You can read the whole article here.

Wednesday, August 20, 2014

Kosovo and Ukraine: Compare and contrast



My new column for RT.com OpEdge:

There have been at least two countries in Europe in recent history that undertook ‘anti-terrorist’ military operations against ‘separatists’, but got two very different reactions from the Western elite...

You can read the whole piece here.

Friday, August 15, 2014

Iraq- a crisis for the western elites - or is it all going to plan?



My new column for RT.com OpEdge.

It has all turned out rather differently from how those very distinguished neocon "experts"’ told us it would, hasn’t it?

In the lead-up to the illegal invasion of Iraq in March 2003, we were assured "regime change" would lead to peace and stability and be good news for the whole region. The war on terror would be won, if only that great monster Saddam- with his world-threatening weapons of mass destruction- was removed from power. When asked by an interviewer: "If we go into Iraq and we take down Hussein?" the chairman of the Defense Policy Board Richard Perle replied: "Then I think it's over for the terrorists."

You can read the whole piece here.

Thursday, August 07, 2014

The Intelligent Punter's Guide to the 2014 USPGA



My latest IP Guide, for the USPGA, which starts today in Kentucky.

The fourth and final golfing Major of the year - the US PGA championship – starts today. It is being held for the third time at Valhalla, the Jack Nicklaus–designed course in Louisville, Kentucky.

Smart punters should take four factors into account when making a shortlist:

You can read the whole article over at The Week website   here.


Same game for 150 Years- British establishment v Russian bogeyman



My new piece for RT.com OpEdge.

It is the wartime alliance that no one in the West is mentioning as we commemorate the 100th anniversary of the start of World War I.

Britain and Russia fought on the same side in the 'Great War', just as Britain and the Soviet Union did in World War II. But we are not supposed to mention such things in an age when British political elites have designated Russia to be an 'official enemy'.

Instead of reminding people how Britain and Russian were allies a century ago, David Cameron uses the WWI centenary to urge NATO to get tougher with Russia.

You can read the whole piece here.

Sunday, August 03, 2014

'Let's sanction Russia'



My new piece for RT.com OpEdge:

Israel shells a UN school in Gaza killing 15. It's the sixth time a UN school has been struck.

'Children, women and men killed & injured as they slept in a place where they should have been safe and protected. They were not. Intolerable', says Pierre Krahenbuhl, commissioner general of UNRWA.

Overall, almost 1,400 people (UPDATE: NOW OVER 1800) have been killed in Gaza by Israeli forces with missiles and military equipment supplied by the US. After the latest UN school attack, it was announced that the US will send more ammunition to Israel. The conclusion is: "Let’s sanction Russia!"

You can read the whole of the piece here. 

Wednesday, July 23, 2014

MH17 and Gaza- two very different elite reactions



298 people killed in the MH17 disaster. Over 600 killed in Gaza. The elite western reaction to these two different tragedies – one still ongoing – tells us so much about the world we live in.

You can read the whole of my new piece for RT.com OpEdge here.

Wednesday, July 09, 2014

Tunisia- where the Arab Spring has not yet turned to winter



My new piece for RT.com OpEdge.

It’s just past ten in the morning and the temperature in Tunis is already in the mid-thirties. Usually the cafes in the Tunisian capital would be full of people, but it’s the start of Ramadan and most of them are closed...

You can read the whole of my piece on developments in Tunisia, here

Friday, June 27, 2014

Iraq - the things warmongers said



Now that Iraq is back in the western news headlines again, with calls for 'intervention' to counter ISIS, it's worth bearing in mind what the architects of the Iraq war and the cheerleaders for it said in the lead up and during the invasion about the 'threat' from Saddam's WMDs and how toppling a secular dictator would help the so-called 'war on terror' and bring peace and security to the region.

Do we really want to take these people's advice on what 'we' should do now in Iraq? Up to a million people have been killed since the illegal invasion and as critics predicted at the time, the war led to enormous chaos and instability and boosted radical Islamic extremism. By their own words, let the warmongers be damned.

You can read the whole of my piece from RT.com on the things that the warmongers said, here.

Monday, June 23, 2014

The Intelligent Punter's Guide to Wimbledon 2014



Last year it was game, set and match to our Intelligent Punter’s Guide to Wimbledon when we recommended bets on the men’s singles winner Andy Murray at 4-1 and identified Sabine Lisicki, the 80-1 shot who reached the women’s final, as one of the best outsiders in the tournament.

Who are the ace tips this year?
You can read the whole of my Intelligent Punter's Guide to Wimbledon 2014, here. 

'Ukrainian President is acting from position of weakness'


Above you can watch the latest interview with me on RT.
More here.

Thursday, June 19, 2014

Tony Blair: How to be a serial warmonger



Being a warmongering NeoCon, and in particular being a warmongering NeoCon called Tony Blair, means never having to accept responsibility for the consequences of your actions.

What it does mean is shifting the blame on to others and trying to rewrite history.

You can read the whole of my new RT OpEdge comment piece on Tony Blair's serial warmongering and his attempts to rewrite history, here.

Wednesday, June 18, 2014

The Intelligent Punter's Guide to Royal Ascot 2014



Off to a flying start on the first day- you can read the latest IP Guide on how to beat the bookies here.
On the subject of horse racing, my piece on the 'mating game'- the lucrative business of breeding racehorses, is in today's Daily Express. You can read it here.  

Monday, June 16, 2014

The World Cup and a world of changes



My new piece for RT.com OpEdge

The 20th World Cup is upon us. The football World Cup is not only a great festival of sport – it also provides us with a snapshot of the world at the time the tournament takes place, and tells us much about the global political situation.

We can't – even if we’d like to – take politics out of sport, as sport does not exist in a vacuum.

Forty years ago for instance, in 1974, 16 countries participated in the World Cup held in a country (West Germany) which today doesn't officially exist. Two other competing countries – Yugoslavia and East Germany – don't exist either. And the only African country taking part, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, was Zaire not too long ago.

You can read the whole of the article here.

Wednesday, June 11, 2014

The Intelligent Punter's Guide to the 2014 World Cup



The World Cup finally kicks off at 9pm UK time on Thursday 12 June when the hosts, Brazil, take on Croatia. So, who should you be putting your money on to win the final on Sunday 13 July?

You can read my team-by-team guide to the 2014 World Cup here.

Tuesday, June 10, 2014

Crown and out? European monarchies change faces to fight for relevance

My new piece over at RT.com OpEdge on the future of Europe's monarchies.

The news that King Juan Carlos of Spain is to abdicate brings the subject of Europe’s hereditary monarchies and their survival in the 21st century once more into debate.

You can read the whole piece here.

Saturday, June 07, 2014

The Intelligent Punter's Guide to the 2014 Epsom Derby



The Epsom Derby, the most famous race in the British flat racing calendar, worth £782,314 to the winner, takes place at 4pm on Saturday.

The annual contest for three-year-olds, run over one mile and four furlongs, has been won down the years by such illustrious names as Hyperion, Mill Reef and the ill-fated wonder-horse Shergar, who trounced his rivals by a record ten lengths back in 1981.

There are 16 runners to choose from. What should the intelligent punter be looking for?

You can read the whole of my IP Guide to the 2014 Epsom Derby here:

Friday, June 06, 2014

Ten lessons we've learnt from the European elections



There are many lessons to be learnt from the European election results. But whether Europe's spectacularly out-of-touch political and media elite do learn from them is a different thing altogether....

You can read the whole of my new piece for RT.com OpEdge on the European elections, here. 

Sunday, May 25, 2014

Thursday, May 22, 2014

Charles Aznavour: Happy 90th birthday to the Gallic golden oldie


SINCE his career began in 1933 the singer has sold over 100 million records but shows no signs of slowing down as he celebrates his landmark birthday.

When Charles Aznavour first appeared on stage in a play at the age of nine Adolf Hitler had just become chancellor of Germany, Ramsay MacDonald was the British prime minister and the average wage in the UK was £3.60 a week.

You can read the whole of my Daily Express feature on the great singer, who is 90 years young today (22nd May), here.

Tuesday, May 20, 2014

Just imagine......


Just imagine if the democratically-elected government of Canada had been toppled in a Russian-financed coup, in which far-right extremists and neo-Nazis played a prominent role.
That the new unelected 'government' in Ottawa cancelled the law giving the French language official status, appointed a billionaire oligarch to run Quebec and signed an association agreement with a Russian-led trade bloc.

Just imagine…
If Russia had spent $5 billion on regime change in Canada and then a leading Canadian energy firm had appointed to its board of directors the son of a top Russian government politician.

You can read the whole of my new piece for RT.com OpEdge here.

While here you can watch a brief interview with me in a news report on Russian TV on the Hunter Biden affair





Thursday, May 15, 2014

Ukraine, George Orwell and western Doublespeak

In case you missed it last weekend, you can now watch last week's Sputnik with George Galloway, Gayatri, Sean Murray and myself, here.

Saturday, May 10, 2014

I'm on RT Sputnik today discussing Ukraine


If you're in the UK, you can watch me discussing Ukraine with George Galloway (above) and Gayatri on Sputnik show on RT, showing at 7.30pm and 11.30pm UK time today (Saturday 9th May). (Channel 85 on Freeview).
I'll post a video here later.

Intelligent Punter's Guide to the 2014 Eurovision Song Contest

For any Eurovision fans out there, my IP Guide to this year's contest can be read here.

Friday, May 09, 2014

Vote the Right Way.... or else



My new column for RT.com OpEdge on the anti-democratic democrats of the west.

It's a parody of democracy. It will damage the political process and hinder the prospects for peace. This is how Western leaders – their regional allies and also UN bigwigs – have dismissed the presidential elections in Syria set for June 3.

It seems that despite having a choice of several candidates, the Syrian people having an election to decide for themselves who should be their country's president is a very bad thing. In the name of 'democracy', elections in Syria should only happen after the current government has been forcibly removed from power. 'Assad must go', even if it could well be the case that the majority of Syrians don't want him to go.

The Western elite's dismissive response to these elections tells us everything we need to know about their commitment to “democracy”.

You can read the whole of the piece here.

Tuesday, May 06, 2014

Western double standards on Ukraine are off the scale



Here is the latest interview with me on Ukraine from RT.com

The US and the EU are calling for peace in Ukraine, but they were also the primary instigators of the unrest in the first place; now they must use their influence on the Kiev government to stop the violence, Neil Clark, writer and journalist, tells RT.

You can read a transcript of the interview here.

Friday, April 18, 2014

Russophobia- covering up the shortcomings of the West



You  can listen to me taking part in a radio discussion on Russophobia- and who is fuelling it- on Voice of Russia here. The presenter is Peter Lavelle.


Tuesday, April 15, 2014

I'm confused, can anyone help me?



My new piece for RT.com OpEdge

I'm confused. A few weeks ago we were told in the West that people occupying government buildings in Ukraine was a very good thing. These people, we were told by our political leaders and elite media commentators, were 'pro-democracy protestors'.
The US government warned the Ukrainian authorities against using force against these 'pro-democracy protestors' even if, according to the pictures we saw, some of them were neo-Nazis who were throwing Molotov cocktails and other things at the police and smashing up statues and setting fire to buildings.
Now, just a few weeks later, we're told that people occupying government buildings in Ukraine are not'pro-democracy protestors' but 'terrorists' or 'militants'.

You can read the whole piece here 

Saturday, April 12, 2014

Cross Talk: Broken Ukraine



Above you can watch me taking part in the latest edition of Cross Talk on RT. Topic: Broken Ukraine.
While here is an interview with me on the latest developments in Ukraine on Voice of Russia radio.

Thursday, April 10, 2014

The Intelligent Punter's Guide to the 2014 US Masters

TIGER WOODS may be missing through injury but there's still a great four days of action to look forward to in the first golfing Major of the year - the US Masters.
You can read the whole of my Guide to the first golfing Major of the year, here.

Tuesday, April 08, 2014

Hungary's elections: Don't be fooled by the labels



My new piece for RT.com OpEdge.

On the one side we have a government that has carried out renationalization, which has confronted the greedy foreign-owned energy companies, and presided over a rise in real wages and a fall in unemployment.

Also, this government imposed a bank tax and implemented other measures to help ordinary people – including a government-decreed cut in energy bills.

On the other side, there is an opposition alliance that supports further privatization, wants more policies to benefit global "investors," which is unashamedly pro-banker and pro-globalist and whose main alliance partner when last in government imposed swingeing cuts in public spending, destroyed state-owned companies including national airline Malev, and left millions of ordinary people worse off.

Now, you'd probably think that the government is question was "socialist’ or "leftist" and the opposition "conservative." But in fact, it is the other way round.

You can read the whole of the piece here.

Monday, April 07, 2014

On the Royal Mail sell-off, Tony Benn & privatisation in Serbia

My new Public Ownership column in the Morning Star.

It's Grand National day. In 1937, the world's most famous steeplechase was won by a horse called Royal Mail.
Just as well Vince Cable and George Osborne weren't around then as they'd have flogged the poor animal off for a fraction of its value - and left the old owners paying for its upkeep, with the new owners able to pocket the profits of future wins.
For, of course, this is what they've done to our Royal Mail. Quite rightly, the price the Royal Mail was sold for has come under attack, with the National Audit Office reporting this week that the government's actions cost British taxpayers £750 million in a single day, but while the fact that this national institution was sold for at least £1.6 billion below its real value is scandalous - and some would say criminal - it would be a mistake to base our critique of the sale solely on the basis that "they sold it off on the cheap."
For the fact is that even if the Royal Mail had been sold at its proper value, it would still have been the wrong thing to do.
The Royal Mail was a profitable publicly owned enterprise which had delivered an excellent service to the public for centuries.

You can read the whole column here. 

Friday, April 04, 2014

The Intelligent Punter's Guide to the 2014 Grand National



Who's worth a bet? Or what are your chances with the horse you drew in the sweepstake?

WITH winners at 100-1, 33-1 and 66-1 in three of the last five years, there can be rich pickings for those who bet on the victor in tomorrow's Grand National, due off at 4.15pm and televised live on Channel 4.

You can read the whole of my IP Guide to the 2014 Grand National here.
Good luck with your selections!


Russophobia- the obsession of the UK's elite, (but not of the people)



My new piece for RT.com OpEdge.

The gap between the views of the elites and the people in the UK is wider than at any time in the last 100 years.
I mentioned it in an RT OpEdge in September, and now the democratic deficit has once again been highlighted by the relentless attacks on Russia and President Putin from members of our political and media elite. We've seen article after article and heard speech after speech attacking Russia and its president for what has happened in Crimea, and regular attempts to scare the public about the Russian'threat'.

You can read the whole piece here.

Sunday, March 30, 2014

Clegg v Farage

BBC Tees interview with me on last week's debate, here (item starts at 10mins).

Wednesday, March 26, 2014

Belgrade calls for a World of Equals

 



Here's my report for RT.com OpEdge on last weekend's meeting of the Belgrade Forum for the World of Equals
 
To mark the 15th anniversary of the start of the illegal NATO war of aggression against the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia, over 500 scientists, experts and peace campaigners, myself included, gathered in the capital of Serbia. There, the international conference 'Global Peace vs Global Interventionism and Imperialism', organized by the Belgrade Forum for a World of Equals took place March 21-24. The event began Friday evening with the opening of a photographic exhibition in the Sava Center, which displayed the appalling humanitarian, economic and environmental consequences of the 78-day NATO bombardment.

You can read the whole piece here.
While here you can watch a video of me delivering the final document to the Conference and also read the whole document.

UPDATE: You can watch my speech to the Belgrade Forum on how we can defeat the serial warmongering Neo-Con/Fake Left Mafia here, along with other speeches from the conference.

'Kiev leaders took power with the Right Sector's help but are now frightened of them'



Above you can watch a new interview with me from RT.com on latest developments in Ukraine.

Wednesday, March 19, 2014

Crimean referendum is democracy in action

You can read a new interview with me on RT.com on the Crimean referendum and the double standards of the US/UK/EU elite figures who called it 'illegal', here.
Also, here's a link to a BBC Oxford interview with me on the same subject. The item starts at around 1.10mins into the programme.  

Saturday, March 15, 2014

Crimea- another artifically created crisis



Well, we had the Kosovo 'crisis',  the Iraqi WMD 'crisis', the Iran nukes 'crisis'- and now it's time for the Crimea 'crisis'. Here's my new OpEdge piece for RT.com on another artificially created crisis.

Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov has said that the Ukraine/Crimea crisis has been "created artificially for purely geopolitical reasons." And he’s right.

It's important to understand that this is not a "one-off" but only the latest in a long line of international "crises" either deliberately hyped up or artificially created by the western powers to further their geopolitical interests.

British Foreign Secretary William Hague has said that Crimea is the "the biggest crisis in Europe in the 21st century." But it‘s not the first time leading western politicians have talked in such alarmist terms in recent years.

You can read the whole piece here.