The Thorpe-Apps Report

Cameron: Big Society is my mission

2011-02-14T07:40:00.000-08:00

David Cameron has told entrepreneurs that he remains passionate about the initiative. He also said that spending cuts will not be the Big Society's death knell.

Mr Cameron said the government's "duty" was sorting out the budget deficit and building economic growth but he added: "What is my mission, what is it I am really passionate about? It is actually social recovery as well as economic recovery. We do need a social recovery to mend the broken society and to me, that's what the Big Society is all about."

The government has also announced details of a Big Society bank, which will use £100m in its first year from dormant bank accounts and £200m from the Project Merlin deal with banks to support working capital projects approved by the government. Among its advisers will be the Labour donor Sir Ronald Cohen.

TUC general secretary Brendan Barber said the Big Society showed that Mr Cameron "believes that policies of slash, burn and sack will make all our lives better".

Hosni Mubarak resigns

2011-02-11T15:18:00.000-08:00

After almost three weeks of demands for freedom from the Egyptian people, Hosni Mubarak has stepped down from power. The news brought jubilation to millions of Egyptians.

Mubarak steps down: analysis provided by RT

“This is not the end of Egypt’s transition,” President Obama said in a statement delivered at the White House Friday afternoon. “It’s a beginning.”

Obama's words come with questions as to whether the authoritarian regime is indeed over. All of Egypts's four Presidents since the fall of the monarchy have been former Generals. How will a country of weak political institutions and few opposition leaders organise a transition to democracy, and will the army allow it to do so? Such questions are vital in answering whether Egypt can transform itself and remain a stable force in the region.

Richard Haass, president of the Council on Foreign Relations (CFR), said that the hard part of Egypt’s transition is still to come. “This has got a long way to play out,” said Haass. Using the analogy of a baseball game, he said that Egypt was “squarely in the bottom of the second inning” – and that Mr. Mubarak’s resignation, as significant as it is, advances Egypt only “to the third inning.”

The European Union said in a statement that “an orderly and irreversible transition towards democracy and free and fair elections is the shared objective of both the EU and the Egyptian people.” Egypt’s political dialogue must now be “accelerated, leading to a broad-based civilian government which will respect the aspirations of, and deliver stability for, the Egyptian people,” the statement said.

Some Egyptians were already expressing a cautious view on how quickly the political transition would occur, with opposition leader Mohamed ElBaradei saying it could take a year to prepare for elections.

One thing to watch for in terms of the military in the days ahead, Haass says, is the extent to which it is able to play its interim role without slipping into politics. “The more [the Army] becomes a political actor, the more it loses some of its above-politics legitimacy,” he says. If the military loses that legitimacy, he adds, Egypt risks losing a key institution for its transition process.

The Thorpe-Apps Report releases new promotional video

2011-02-11T14:58:00.000-08:00

The Thorpe-Apps Report brings you all the latest news and views from around the world.

Iran fearful of protests

2011-02-11T02:36:00.000-08:00

In the wake of Egypt's protests, Iran has cracked down on access to news outlets. Yahoo News, Reuters and the BBC's Persian service have all been blocked in recent days.

Iran is hedging its bets by limiting the influx of breaking news out of its Middle Eastern neighbour. Political unrest remains from when the country exploded into social media-fueled protests following the re-election of Mahmoud Ahmadinejad last June.

Today is also the anniversary of the Iranian Revolution and this, coupled with opposition leader Karubi being placed under house arrest yesterday morning, meant protests have been called over the next couple of days in Iran.

During the disputed Iranian elections in 2009, satellite transmissions of Persian TV came under sustained attack from within Iran forcing the BBC to extend is broadcast hours and increase the number of satellites used to transmit the service.

As Egypt illustrated when it shut down access to the web entirely, tightening censorship in a restless nation can backfire easily, stoking civil unrest and capturing global attention. If the spark of the Egyptian revolt spreads to Iran as it did from Tunisia to Egypt, the domino effect might continue to threaten disputed governments throughout the Arab world.

Iran experienced widespread protests in June 2010

Cameron: State multiculturalism has failed

2011-02-10T17:12:00.000-08:00

David Cameron has criticised "state multiculturalism", an ideology which grew up during the Labour years, for undermining community relations in the United Kingdom.

At a security conference in Munich, he argued the UK needed a stronger national identity to prevent people turning to extremism. He also signalled a tougher stance on groups promoting Islamist extremism.

"State multiculturalism is a wrong-headed doctrine that has had disastrous results. It has fostered difference between communities. And it has stopped us from strengthening our collective identity. Indeed, it has deliberately weakened it," he said.

Cameron defined "state multiculturalism" as "the idea that we should respect different cultures within Britain to the point of allowing them – indeed encouraging them – to live separate lives, apart from each other and apart from the mainstream. Multiculturalism was manipulated to entrench the right to difference – which is a divisive concept. What we need is the right to equal treatment despite difference."

The speech angered some Muslim groups, while others queried its timing amid an English Defence League rally in Luton.

David Cameron's words are to be welcomed. For too long, immigrants have come to Britain without any intention to adapt to the British way of life. Indeed, there seems to be an expectation on the part of many recent immigrants that society must change to suite their needs and values. Although forced assimilation, in line with early American ideas of the 'melting-pot', are too extreme for the UK context, nevertheless a happy medium between assimilation and cultural acceptance must be found.

Community groups within Britain must communicate with one another. If there is dialogue, cultural sharing and an emphasis on British identity, then Britian can move forward in a united way.