Rafael Behr

Brighton

Columnist, podcaster Book: Politics, A Survivor's Guide https://t.co/vbGnscg88r Also (and more often) @rafaelbehr.bsky.social

Articles

38 Londres Street by Philippe Sands review - Pinochet and the Nazis

1 week ago | theguardian.com | Rafael Behr

Augusto Pinochet expected London to be a hospitable city when he arrived there in October 1998. The 82-year-old former Chilean dictator had backed Margaret Thatcher in the Falklands war and, while the Conservatives were no longer in power, a former prime minister counted as a friend in high places.British police were not interested in kidnap, murder and torture in South America under a junta that had seized power in a coup in 1973. Besides, a former head of state had diplomatic immunity.
38 Londres Street by Philippe Sands review – Pinochet and the Nazis

1 week ago | msn.com | Rafael Behr

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Britain cannot afford to gamble on America returning to its senses. We must urgently look elsewhere | Rafael Behr

2 weeks ago | theguardian.com | Rafael Behr

Whatever Britain’s relationship with the US under Donald Trump might be, it should not be called an alliance. That word implies common goals, shared burdens and trust – a cooperative model that is not available from the White House. Trump’s warped concept of reciprocity is encapsulated in his belief that foreigners are guilty of “pillage” when they sell more goods to the US than they buy in return.
Keir Starmer won power without a purpose. Now he risks squandering it

3 weeks ago | msn.com | Rafael Behr

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Keir Starmer won power without a purpose. Now he risks squandering it | Rafael Behr

3 weeks ago | theguardian.com | Rafael Behr

Upsetting backbench MPs is an occupational hazard for prime ministers. Government is an endless sequence of messy compromises. Incumbency is a drag on popularity. Poll ratings sink and nerves fray. Careers are thwarted. There are fewer ministerial jobs than ambitious candidates. This is normal party discontentment. It grows over the course of a parliament, becoming critical at the point when rebel numbers threaten the leader’s majority.
A Trump-Putin pact is emerging – and Europe is its target | Rafael Behr

1 month ago | theguardian.com | Rafael Behr

A prime time current affairs programme; a discussion about Donald Trump’s handling of the war in Ukraine. “He’s doing excellent things,” says a firebrand politician on the panel, before listing White House actions that have belittled Volodymyr Zelenskyy and weakened his battlefield position – military aid suspended; satellite communications obstructed; intelligence withheld. “Do we support this?” It is a rhetorical question. “We support it all. Absolutely,” the celebrity host responds.
Five years on from the pandemic, how has Covid changed our world?

1 month ago | msn.com | Stephen Reicher |Rachel Clarke |Rafael Behr |Frances Ryan

Microsoft Cares About Your PrivacyMicrosoft and our third-party vendors use cookies to store and access information such as unique IDs to deliver, maintain and improve our services and ads. If you agree, MSN and Microsoft Bing will personalise the content and ads that you see. You can select ‘I Accept’ to consent to these uses or click on ‘Manage preferences’ to review your options and exercise your right to object to Legitimate Interest where used.
Five years on from the pandemic, how has Covid changed our world? | The panel

1 month ago | theguardian.com | Stephen Reicher |Rafael Behr |Frances Ryan |Rachel Clarke |Sophie Mackintosh |Laleh Khalili | +5 more

The cost of pessimistic individualism was measured in tens of thousands of livesStephen ReicherProfessor of psychology at the University of St Andrews and a fellow of the Royal Society of Edinburgh and the British AcademyGreat calamities often provoke reflections about the human condition. The Lisbon earthquake of 1755 led people to reconsider their relationship with God, and compelled Voltaire to viciously lampoon Leibniz’s notion that we live in the best of all possible worlds.
In a frightening new era, Starmer has made his move – and may have found his calling

1 month ago | msn.com | Rafael Behr

Microsoft Cares About Your PrivacyMicrosoft and our third-party vendors use cookies to store and access information such as unique IDs to deliver, maintain and improve our services and ads. If you agree, MSN and Microsoft Bing will personalise the content and ads that you see. You can select ‘I Accept’ to consent to these uses or click on ‘Manage preferences’ to review your options and exercise your right to object to Legitimate Interest where used.
In a frightening new era, Starmer has made his move – and may have found his calling | Rafael Behr

1 month ago | theguardian.com | Rafael Behr

British politics is having one of its periodic outbreaks of polarised consensus. This is the paradoxical condition that occurs from time to time when the ruling party and the official opposition are forced by circumstance to have the same policy, while compelled by traditional enmity to resent the convergence. The pressure on Keir Starmer to raise defence spending to 2.5% of gross domestic product has been building steadily in recent months, and independently of Tory demands that he do it.