Ian Birrell on The Evening Standard

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Ian Birrell

Blunderbuss powers: black Britons are 30 times more likely to be stopped and searched than whites

Can the Met ever be free of the culture of racism?

Recent police behaviour is a test for the new Met chief. Post-Stephen Lawrence, lessons have yet to be learned

10 April 2012 11:42 AM

Flower power: a cannabis factory in Walthamstow. The drug has effectively been decriminalised on the sly

Even the police think our drugs laws are absurd

Senior officers admit banning ‘legal highs’ won’t work. So will politicians recognise that the war on drugs is lost?

03 April 2012 12:23 PM

The danger of us intervening in Syria's bloodshed

The scenes are unbearable. Children with their faces blown away, young men with legs severed, women bleeding slowly to death. Shattered homes and shattered bones. Doctors tell of people dying from lack of blood, or because vital equipment lies blown to pieces. In the distance, the thud of heavy weaponry, bringing more death and destruction.

13 February 2012 12:08 PM

Disabled are at the mercy of ministers and media

What would you think if you heard the Home Office was colluding with newspapers to fuel hatred against gay people? Or if affable Ken Clarke at the Ministry of Justice fed propaganda to broadcasters designed to disparage ethnic minorities? There would, quite rightly, be an outcry.

07 February 2012 11:07 AM

Resist pessimism - keep faith with the Arab Spring

Just under a year ago, I travelled around Libya posing as a tourist to talk to people planning the uprising against Muammar Gaddafi. Between visits to classical ruins and museums I ducked into the homes and offices of brave individuals willing to risk jail, torture and execution to discuss the revolution with a foreign reporter.

03 January 2012 11:37 AM

Why the St Paul's rebels without a clue can't simply be ignored

It is easy to mock them as rebels without a clue, let alone a cause. The ragbag revolutionaries against everything from bankers and capitalism to nuclear power, privatisation, student fees and "the monetary system". One insurgent wants to smash the state, another merely enjoys the camaraderie of the camp in the shadow of St Paul's Cathedral.

18 October 2011 12:56 PM

Immigrants saved my family and are crucial to Britain

One unexpected aspect of life as the parent of a profoundly disabled teenager is that at times it is almost like running a small business, with a raft of people helping provide round-the-clock care. They must all be trained, trustworthy and pleasant, since they spend so long in your home and with your child.

11 October 2011 12:50 PM

David Cameron must breathe new life into the Coalition

"We had lost our virginity on scandal," wrote Tony Blair, reflecting on the furore over Bernie Ecclestone's million-pound gift to the Labour Party a few months after taking office. Scandal, he said, was "an absolute nightmare in government", stealing up unawares and consuming vast time and effort while facts were established, lines worked out and positions staked.

25 July 2011 12:31 PM

Is the Coalition marriage doomed to end in divorce?

Thankfully, it is nearly over. The debate over a small change to our voting system has been a depressing spectacle of politics at its most puerile, insulting the public intelligence with ludicrous claims made on all sides amid a disturbing lack of reality. Fortunately there have been more important events going on in the world to distract the electorate from the mind-numbing campaign, not least the death of Osama bin Laden.

03 May 2011 12:06 PM

Why Britain must try to stop the slaughter in Syria

Libya made history last month by becoming the first nation to be suspended from the United Nations Human Rights Council. Next month, elections take place for its replacement - but in the best tradition of many member states, the result has been stitched up in advance. The winning candidate, supported by both Egypt and Tunisia, is set to be Syria.

27 April 2011 11:45 AM