Some soared, others flopped as the three major parties gathered for their annual conferences

Doing our bit to annoy everyone else

Andrew Williams heads our review of this year’s party conference season – and he is crying out for an end to this “outdated and obsolete charade”

Oliver Johnstone explores parallels between student protests in Chile and here in the UK

On 23 September Mahmoud Abbas, leader of the Palestine Liberation Organisation (PLO) and head of the Palestinian Authority, officially submitted a bid to UN Secretary General Ban Ki-Moon for Palestine to be recognised as a state and granted full membership of the United Nations. This bid has precisely a zero per cent chance of succeeding. […]

“With our souls, with our blood, we will defend Palestine,” cry those for whom Western rhetoric has become a rare beacon of hope in the ongoing battle for Palestinian statehood. Tired of the empty rhetoric of Barack Obama and others, and determined to bring an end to this most enduring of conflicts, President of the […]

Ben Moore in defence of the University, and city, of Manchester

Calls for an economic alternative have grown over the past 12 months, and following his keynote party conference speech ‘Red Ed’ is looking more far-sighted than far-left, writes Rob Fuller

The financial crisis currently afflicting the Eurozone economies is being exacerbated by a bureaucratic European Union that is degenerating into a rudderless ship, argues Kevin Bennett

Vladimir Putin’s latest statement of intent doesn’t only have implications for President Medvedev – it will have a great impact on Russian democracy and the wider international community

Thomas Turner, James Broadway and Louis Raffin consider the future of Labour in light of their recent conference and a worrying lack of confidence in the party leader

Going out is so uncouth

The age of multi-billion dollar presidential campaigns has bred a generation of US politicians who are increasingly beholden to wealthy donors

Andrew Williams explains why his love affair with the Labour Party is over – for now

For all of President Obama’s idealistic rhetoric, it falls to our European leaders to take action over the Middle East peace process

Conservative Party activist Charles Bailey assesses a strange turn in the ongoing battle to become the next leader of the Scottish Tories

Socially acceptable selfishness

Kevin Bennett considers the likely impact of government plans to cut the number of MPs and redraw constituency boundaries

ong gone are the days when the stay alone mother was deemed integral to the moral foundations of society

The ‘Occupy Wall Street’ protests have grown from a few hundred young people to a mass movement with global support, writes Joe Sandler Clarke