Aug 6, 2006
LEVEL PLAYING FIELD The Hindu, 6 August As of November last year, anyone applying for British citizenship has to pass a test demonstrating both proficiency in English and “sufficient knowledge of life in the United Kingdom”. In preparation for the test, applicants are asked to study a booklet that begins with a brief history of Britain…. Read more
Jun 25, 2006
LEVEL PLAYING FIELD The Hindu, 25 June At 4 AM on June 2nd, another grim episode in the war on terror was played out on a quiet residential street in east London. In what the media initially hailed as a major anti-terrorist triumph, 250 heavily armed police descended on a house where, it was alleged,… Read more
Jun 13, 2006
LEVEL PLAYING FIELD The Hindu, 11 June In London at the moment you can’t get away from it. The red cross flag of St George is fluttering from cars and balconies, plastered on windows and billboards, inscribed on chocolate bars, pizza boxes and soft drink bottles. And in case anyone was not aware that England… Read more
May 2, 2006
LEVEL PLAYING FIELD The Hindu, 30 April The elections for the Palestinian Authority held in the Occupied Territories earlier this year were universally certified as free and fair, an exemplary exercise in democracy, unique in the Arab world. But there was a single tragic flaw in the process, and that was the result: a victory… Read more
Apr 16, 2006
LEVEL PLAYING FIELD The Hindu, 16 April Whatever happened to the British Labour Party? The organisation that built the welfare state and the National Health Service, that for generations provided (however incompletely) a political voice and some protection for the country’s working class majority, is now one of Europe’s most aggressive champions of neo-liberalism, the… Read more
Mar 19, 2006
LEVEL PLAYING FIELD The Hindu, 19 March In recent weeks I’ve been dragging myself out of bed at an ungodly hour. Outside it’s still dark. I’m like a guilty child on Christmas morning, unable to sleep, sneaking out of the bedroom to peep at the presents spread under the tree. Only nowadays the waiting treasure,… Read more
Mar 5, 2006
LEVEL PLAYING FIELD The Hindu, 5 March The news that the elected Mayor of London was to be suspended from office for a month at the direction of an appointed tribunal startled Londoners, partly because few had any idea that there existed a body with the power to overturn their democratic preference, and partly because… Read more
Feb 19, 2006
LEVEL PLAYING FIELD The Hindu, 19 February It’s impossible not to be dismayed by the spiral of events. A witless racist cartoon is elevated into a totem of western democracy and holocaust denial becomes a symbol of resistance to imperialism. The message contained in the Danish cartoon was blunt: it drew an equation between Muslims… Read more
Feb 5, 2006
LEVEL PLAYING FIELD The Hindu, 5 February Three years ago, the world witnessed something unprecedented. On the same day, in 900 cities in forty countries north and south, east and west, thirty million people took to the streets in protest against the imminent attack on Iraq. There were demonstrations in Moscow, Karachi, Dhaka, Manila, Johannesburg,… Read more
Jan 22, 2006
LEVEL PLAYING FIELD The Hindu, 22 January Thanks to a minor but persistent ailment, I recently paid a series of visits to my local doctors’ surgery. As always, the waiting room was filled. The patients – mostly working-class, many from the Turkish and Kurdish communities that are prominent in the area – were calm. We… Read more
