As the racist murder of Stephen Lawrence showed, racism has no place in society.  Yet given the rise of openly racist attacks against white people by members of the Asian community, unless you happen to be white, then racism is not an issue.

After the lowest turnout in last week’s local election for 12 years of around 30%, there seems to be little for anybody to cheer about.  However, with a rise in extreme nationalist parties in the French and Greek elections, the true effect of such an abysmal showing in the UK ballot box extends past Tory humiliation, Labour apathy and continued irrelevance of the Lib Dems.

On December 17, 2010, street vendor Mohamed Bouazizi set himself on fire in the Tunisian town of Sidi Bouzid.  This symbolic act of martyrdom was the catalyst for the Arab Spring after the toppling of the Tunisian regime.  Yet barely 18 months on, it seems that the spring is dry.

With a turnout of over 80%, French Socialist Francis Hollande has gained the upper hand over Nicolas Sarkozy for the presidential runoff.  However, for anyone savouring a humiliating end to the incumbent President should also be chilled by the rise of the French National Front.

With a mere 57 Lib Dems MPs against 306 Conservatives at Westminster, one can only speculate how Nick Clegg has been able to exact so much influence over David Cameron.  So serious is this issue that ahead of next month’s local elections one simple question must be asked;  is the Tory leader a secret Liberal sympathiser?

The duties of the current Deputy Prime Minister include supporting people with disabilities to become MPs, introducing fixed-term Parliaments and also developing proposals for a wholly or mainly elected second Chamber.  These are just some of the arduous responsibilities proving to be quite exhaustive for the current DPM, Nick Clegg.