The riots are symptomatic of a decay in British culture. Something in British culture has died, or is at least close to the point of death. By that I certainly don’t mean the dilution of British culture by the arrival of those from other cultures. In fact, during the riots we have seen some of […]
By Martin Parsons Yesterday the government announced a new Coastal Communities Fund worth around £23 million to support the economic development of coastal areas. Businesses, charities and other local organisations can submit bids to fund a range of projects which could include developing renewable energy, improving skills or even environmental protection. The fund, which will start […]
By Martin Parsons On Thursday Labour Shadow Transport Secretary Maria Eagle made the extraordinary claim that the planned coastguard station closures were the result of the coalition cutting the transport budget “too far and too fast”. I say ‘extraordinary’ because what the government is proposing is a somewhat scaled back version of a closure plan […]
By Martin Parsons 1. The Association of Teachers and Lecturers (ATL) has become politicised. When I first qualified as a teacher, I joined the union that is now known as ATL. I joined it for exactly the same reason that most teachers join a union – they want someone to back them up if a […]
By Martin Parsons Unless this question is clearly answered first, we will be in danger of lacking clear war aims (which appears to be the case) and appropriate political and military strategies to achieve them, and still less will we be able to bookmark on the calendar any particular dates for the end of our […]
“The reports of my death are greatly exaggerated”, so wrote Mark Twain to the New York Journal after the newspaper had published his obituary. The same is very much true in relation to the Taliban and other expressions of violent Islamism. Osama bin Laden’s death will not signal its end. In fact one of the […]
By Martin Parsons In this week’s speech on immigration David Cameron raised an issue which seems to have escaped the headline writers. This was a subtle, though highly important shift in government attitude towards culture. Whilst clearly emphasising how much ‘good immigration’ had contributed to Britain, Mr Cameron also made it clear that there were […]
As David Cameron today becomes the first western leader to visit post Mubarak Egypt, Paul Goodman has highlighted some important questions the visit raises about what British foreign policy in the region should be. Are we pro-democracy in the region, or not? If we are, what does that imply for our relationship with allies that […]
By Martin Parsons Five years ago the Conservative Party began a phase of consciously trying to change its image to reach out to a wider section of the electorate. It was important not just electorally, but also as a reaffirmation of what Conservatism has since the days of Disraeli stood for. Yet I believe that […]
Martin Parsons concludes his three-part series considering how to counter radical Islamism. Part II was yesterday. In the previous two articles (here and here) I have outlined how attitudes to sharia are the most important touchstone in defining radicalisation. Sharia is the boundary line that defines most clearly the difference between on the one hand, […]
Martn Parsons writes the second in a three-part series considering how to counter radical Islamism. Read Part I. Yesterday I outlined how the previous Labour government’s approach to countering Islamism failed to recognise that the violent and non-violent Islamist groups had, at least in broad terms, the same long-term strategic aims – the introduction of […]
Martin Parsons begins a three-part series considering how to counter radical islamism. “Tactics without strategy is the noise before defeat” warned the ancient Chinese general Sun Tzu reputed author of The Art of War. Unless we understand the ultimate aims that Islamist terrorists are seeking to achieve, then every public policy aimed at countering them […]
This is the final part of a five-part series looking at the Conservative Party's relationship with churchgoers after thirteen years of Labour government. Dr Martin Parsons is a regular contributor to CentreRight. In the previous four parts of this series (see Part 1, Part 2, Part 3 and Part 4) we have looked at how […]
This is the fourth of a five part series looking at the Conservative Party's relationship with churchgoers after thirteen years of Labour government. Dr Martin Parsons is a regular contributor to CentreRight. In Part 1 we examined Labour’s sustained attack on Christian liberties in Britain and in part 2 the how the Conservative opposition in […]
By Martin Parsons On Tuesday afternoon it was announced that former President of Afghanistan Borhanuddin Rabbani had been assassinated by members of the Taliban. It is tempting for western observers to regard Rabbani as something of a moderate when compared to the Taliban, yet the reality is that Rabbani was one the key founders of […]