British Political Parties

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-18264385

The link above shows the ranking of political parties, in the United Kingdom, through opinion polls for about the past two years.  It shows that there has been a steady preference towards the labor party.  The Group that comes in second is the conservative party.  These two groups would be comparable to our republican and democrat parties, in the way that these are the two main parties that compete.  There were a few different surveys taken, over the phone and internet, and each one included 1,000-1,500 interviewees. There is a margin of error of +/- 3%, that we must take into consideration.

Seeing as we read chapter 2 about how the parties evolved and the impacts they made on the UK, i felt this article was relevant.  It shows how the citizens of the UK still feel about these political parties and if there were any changes in the past two years.

Failed State

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-africa-25849750

   Ethiopia is sending in more troops to aid the African Union in protecting Somalia's borders.  Somalia is a failed state and needs a lot of help.  The first task is to secure the artificial boundaries.  They are currently under attack from terrorist groups with ties to al-Qaeda.  These terrorist groups are trying to use resources to their own advantage and implement Islamic law.  Somalia has had no formal government between 1992 and 2012, After they had ousted their president.  In 2012, the international community backed the implementation of a government, due to high pirating problems.