Displaying items by tag: Politics

Sir Ivan Rogers, the British representative to the EU, has resigned from his position without warning, following disagreements with Theresa May’s team. His resignation leaves the Prime Minister without a senior experienced European negotiator, only weeks before Brexit talks are due to begin. One of the country’s most senior retired civil servants, Lord Macpherson, said that this sudden decision highlighted the Government’s ‘wilful and total’ destruction of its EU expertise. In a farewell message Sir Ivan, who had been criticised for being pessimistic about Britain’s future outside the EU, called on the staff of Britain’s mission in Brussels to ‘continue to challenge ill-founded arguments and muddled thinking’. The Government has acted swiftly to deal with the crisis by appointing Sir Tim Barrow (former ambassador to Russia) as Sir Ivan’s successor. See:

The son of a murdered Pakistani politician is facing death threats from Islamists because he supported an imprisoned Christian woman who is on death row. Human rights activist Shan Taseer asked for people to support Mrs Asia Bibi, over Twitter this week. Bibi has been sentenced to death, accused of "insulting" Islam after she defended her Christian faith. Muslims in Pakistan are now accusing Taseer of blasphemy against Islam. His father, Salman Taseer, was a Pakistani politician who was killed by one of his own bodyguards for opposing the country's blasphemy laws in January 2011. Shan Taseer's Twitter account can no longer be seen, but tweets with hashtags supporting him are spreading from different accounts.