When is the far right acceptable to the West? When it's in Ukraine

My new piece for RT.com OpEdge:

The ‘progressive’ Western political elites and the establishment journalists who act as PR agents for them would like us to think that they are unequivocally opposed to neo-Nazism, homophobia, racism and far-right political extremism.

But how genuine is their opposition? The current disturbances in Ukraine and the western response to them, suggests that it’s highly selective to say the least.

You can read the whole piece here:

VoR debate: Is the West too lenient with its radical allies?

A Voice of Russia radio debate on western support for radical groups in Ukraine, Syria and elsewhere with D.Suslov, and V.Engel and myself. You can listen to the whole programme here.

Let’s disappoint those hungry for military interventions in 2014 too

My new piece for RT.com OpEdge.

2013 was not a good year for the pro-war lobby in the West, but in America, those in favor of military interventions are looking to make it easier for the president to formally declare war.

You can read the whole piece here.

Ukraine opposition trying to topple the democratically-elected government

You can read a new interview with me on RT on the latest anti-government protests and riots in the Ukraine, here.

Selling off Britain

This new column of mine appears in the Morning Star.

Thatcher may be gone, but the serial privatisers are still in full flow - so it's up to us to stop them, writes NEIL CLARK

Twenty-thirteen was the year which saw the death of Margaret Thatcher, the politician who first unleashed privatisation on Britain on coming to power in 1979.

It was also the year when Thatcher's disciples in the Westminster coalition sold off national assets and services that even the Iron Lady ruled out privatising - showing just how far down the neoliberal road we have travelled.

You can read the whole piece here.

Rail against privatisation

This piece of mine appears in the Sunday Express.

IT IS the New Year tradition that we could well do without. Every year, Britain’s rail users, who already pay the highest fares in Europe, are hit with increases on their first day back to work. Happy New Year? Our greedy rail companies make sure that the goodwill lasts only one day.

Although Chancellor George Osborne capped this year’s increase in regulated fares to the RPI rate of inflation, the 3.1 per cent average rise in season tickets and the average rise of 2.8 per cent for all tickets is still a big blow for hard-hit commuters.

It comes at a time of falling real wages and on the back of a 50 per cent rise in fares in the past 10 years. The increases mean that some commuters will now have to pay more than £5,000 for their annual season tickets. Some tickets have gone up by more than £1,000 since 2008.

You can read the whole article here.

1914: The Year when no one mentioned the war

This piece of mine, on the events of exactly 100 years ago, appears in the Daily Express

IN THE Britain of exactly 100 years ago the prospect of a world war was unthinkable - and everyone's concerns were much closer to home...

You can read the whole piece here.

THE INTELLIGENT PUNTER’S GUIDE TO THE 2014 FA CUP

Up for the Cup? Here's my IP Guide to the 2014 FA Cup, over at The Week.

ITS the oldest and most famous football knock-out competition in the world but one that until quite recently looked to have lost a lot of its magic. 
The FA Cup was once renowned for its upsets: in the 1970s we saw surprise winners from the Second Division (Sunderland and Southampton), and in the 1980s there were wins for First Division underdogs Coventry and Wimbledon.
But in the Premier League era, as the financial gap between teams widened, the competition became increasingly dominated by a small number of big clubs. From 1996 until 2007 only four different teams won the competition: Manchester United, Chelsea, Arsenal and Liverpool.
Since 2007 however, the position has changed again.

You can read the whole guide here.  Good luck with your selections!