Utopia, you are standing in it!

Since the rift between Qatar and several other Arab states blew up on June 5^th the BBC News website has produced three articles tagged – inter alia – ‘Hamas’.

Qatar row: Trump urges Arab unity in call to Saudi Arabia’s King Salman, June 7^th 2017

“Saudi Arabia’s foreign minister called on Qatar to cut ties with Palestinian group Hamas in the occupied territories, and the Muslim Brotherhood in Egypt, if it wanted to end its isolation in the Gulf region. […]

He added that Qatar was undermining the Palestinian Authority and Egypt by supporting Hamas and the Muslim Brotherhood, and said stopping these policies would “contribute to stability in the Middle East”.

Hamas is the largest of several militant Islamist Palestinian groups, and was the first Islamist group in the Arab world to win election at the ballot box, before it took power in Gaza after a…

Just two days after the general election, Professor Meg Russell, Dr Jennifer Hudson and Dr Alan Renwick of the Constitution Unit spoke at UCL’s It’s All Academic festival about the constitutional and political fallout. Michela Palese summarises what they said.

Theresa May called for a snap election on 18 April in order to increase the Conservative Party’s majority in the House of Commons and give herself a strong personal mandate for the upcoming Brexit negotiations. The election took place on Thursday 8 June, and its results caught both the Prime Minister and the general public by surprise. No party secured an overall majority of seats and the United Kingdom has its second hung parliament in less than a decade. The Conservatives are left relying on the support of Northern Ireland’s Democratic Unionist Party (DUP) to form a government.

On the morning of Saturday 10 June the Constitution Unit hosted an…

Rick Stein embarks on a series of culinary long weekends in search of food excellence and brilliant recipes, heading to markets, restaurants, wineries, cafes and bars. He begins his second adventure by visiting Reykjavik for a winter break.

Chef Rick Stein’s brand new series is a wonderful gastronomical journey through some of the less obvious destinations for a weekend foodie break. Rick began his series in Bordeaux, which is often referred to as “The sleeping beauty of France”. For week two, Rick visits Reykjavík, the capital and largest city of Iceland.

Rick’s arrival in freezing cold Reykjavik sees him lacking a warm coat and surrounded by landscape that is described as a mix between Fargo and Twin Peaks. A “toasty” hotel awaits which is situated near to the harbour with superb views over Reykjavik.

On his first evening, Rick meets up with his friend Ameer for a beer. Ameer explains to Rick why…

The general election result has done little to halt the steady unravelling of the political situation in Northern Ireland, and may accelerate it. In this post Alan Whysall discusses the implications of the confidence and supply agreement between the Conservatives and DUP, expected to be agreed in the coming days, and what might happen next.  

As Theresa May reaches out to Northern Ireland for support, the political situation there has been steadily unravelling. A pact with the DUP – which has been on the point of emerging for several days, and may appear today, or may not – is unlikely to stop the unravelling. It could accelerate it – not necessarily, but unless there are changes in outlook in Northern Ireland politics, not least from the British government, we risk losing many of the gains that have followed from the Good Friday Agreement.

The unravelling started a while ago…