Kieran Lawrence looks at autonomous weapons and the effect they could have on modern warfare
Continuing a series on world leaders, Miles Deverson takes a look at Angela Merkel
Ben Bland examines the fallout from the Iowa caucuses and looks forward to the New Hampshire primaries.
In the first of a series on world leaders, Miles Deverson takes a look at Nicholas Sarkozy
The Yorker politics team knows that university is filled with a lot of opinionated people.
So many in fact that those less interested in the political world can find yourselves stuck in a pub in a heated discussion amongst your friends wishing you’d paid more attention in those “citizenship” classes. As they spiel out phrases such as “Marxism”, “full employment” and “neo-liberalist structures” you’re struggling to keep up.
But fear not, The Yorker’s Rosie Hazell presents a (somewhat whimsical) guide to Politics, so you have the basic facts at your disposal to hold your own with that flag-waving hippie who keeps visiting your kitchen…
In between your busy student schedule of watching sneezing pandas on YouTube, playing Ring of Fire and burning pasta you may have heard the news that economic growth in the UK has reached 0.5%. I’m betting you had one of four thoughts- a) who cares? b) What does that even mean? c) What’s that burning smell? d) All of the above.
In answer to A, everyone cares about economic growth whether they know it or not. Admittedly, 0.5% in one quarter (or three months) will be unlikely to change your life, but every little helps, right? Higher economic growth means the economy is expanding which, in turn, means more jobs on the market for when you leave university (hurrah!) and possibly higher wages with that too (hurrah!); as the economy grows people spend more money and so you get paid more. However, every silver lining has a cloud: economic growth and inflation come hand-in-hand. So, if this growth is to continue expect to pay a few pence more for your baked beans (boo!).
Now to thought B- what does this even mean? This growth announced on November 1 is said to be due to a jump in the service sector (that’s banking, law, leisure etc.). Economists have suggested that this growth is nothing to be excited about- it’s only in comparison to low growth in last quarter which struggled due to both the Japanese earthquake leading to disruptions in supply and some wedding which led to days off work, less money-making and excited old women. So we can put away our party poppers; we are not miraculously out of this economic mess, just perhaps one step closer to the exit than last quarter.
Oh and C, you might want to check on that pasta.
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