Articles Archive

Friday, 23rd August 2013

Fracking can plug the power gap

The following article appeared in the Sunday Times on 11 August 2013.

OFGEM, the energy regulator, has warned that the UK’s current surplus generating capacity of 14% will sink to a wafer-thin 2% by 2015 as we continue to shut our old, coal-fired power stations to meet EU CO2 emission targets. A 2% surplus would place Britain on a knife-edge. Any surge in energy consumption during a severe cold snap would plunge the country into blackouts.

Thursday, 22nd August 2013

One of Scotland’s finest artists recognised with European Citizen’s Prize

The following article appeared on the website ThinkScotland on 21 August 2013.

On Monday this week, I had the pleasure of presenting influential Scottish artist and pioneering art impresario Professor Richard Demarco CBE with a European Citizen’s Prize during a ceremony in Edinburgh in recognition of his decades-long efforts to bridge cultural divides between Western and Eastern Europe. 

Tuesday, 6th August 2013

Spiraling violence in Iraq

The following article appeared on UPI.com 2 August 2013

Continued bombings, repeated terrorist attacks and spiraling daily casualties in Iraq have given rise to grave concerns in the international community.

The number of victims of violence in Iraq since the beginning of July has more than 700 dead and 1,500 wounded, an average of almost 90 killed and injured every day.

Thursday, 1st August 2013

The Forgotten Mass Execution of Prisoners in Iran in 1988

The following article appeared in The Diplomat on 31 July 2013

The massacre of political prisoners by the Iranian regime, which took place in the summer of 1988 has never been acknowledged by Tehran and remains one of the darkest stains in recent history, although it is relatively unknown in the West.

The executions began in late July and continued for several months. As many as 30,000 political prisoners or more, the overwhelming majority of them activists of the People's Mojahedin Organization of Iran (PMOI or MEK) were slaughtered.