Steve Cockburn Articles

‘A Conservative government will always speak up for freedom and human rights’, so declared the Tories’ election manifesto. How then, just a few months in, have we found our government almost alone in the world arguing against recognising the human rights of people to some of life’s most basic needs?

It’s a little-known fact that the UN headquarters in New York is the only public place in the Big Apple where you can legally smoke. Tobacco, however, is not the only thing there capable of slowing killing people with hot air.

With rightwing hawks circling the ringfenced aid budget, ‘Value for Money’ is the new mantra ringing through DfID’s Palace Street offices. But how does this stack up against some of the government’s early aid decisions?