Garvan Walshe: Japan and Vietnam cut up rough over China’s salami-slicing
The philosophy of expansion, slice by slice, assumes that democratic countries will balk at responding to all but the most blatant of provocations.
Priti Patel MP: Europe isn’t working. The time to reform, repatriate and renegotiate is now.
After last week’s results, the public will expect all UK MEPs to get behind the Prime Minister’s plan.
Alistair Burt MP: The World Cup brings thrills, spills and – inevitably – politics along with it
If you thought Brazil was political, wait for Russia and Qatar.
Iain Dale: The idiocy of Lord Oakeshott
Plus: What Salmond wouldn’t do if the BBC was on fire. Cable’s slow boat to China. How I voted. With a luvvie on Marr. An unconventional interview response. And: I’m staying!
Brian Monteith: UKIP’s new MEP in Scotland is a blow for Salmond, and a chance for the Tories
The SNP made it their mission to demonise Farage’s party – they failed, and it’s a real blow.
Stephan Shakespeare: No overall control will be a theme of our national politics for quite a while
Strong victories for strong leaders are usually the hallmark of a crisis, not of a successful country (which the UK surely is).
Henry Hill: Could UKIP become “the most national party”?
After winning representation in Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland, could it become the first party since Irish independence represented all four home nations?
Garvan Walshe: Putin has to be contained. We’d better get used to it.
Under his leadership, Russia will never be a genuine diplomatic partner. No agreement will be more than a truce that he will feel free to undermine when it suits his interests.
Charlotte Leslie: The serious point to my Baywatch photo pose
Bude Surf Club, and the lifesaving job it qualified me to do, drilled into me that words are no substitute for action.
Iain Dale: Can we now put signs up all over Britain, saying: “LibDems: losing here”?
Plus: My partner votes for a nutter. Downing Street disasters. West Ham’s agony. The gifted Suzanne Evans. And finally: What I might do to really, really annoy you…
Henry Hill: A three-way Euro-election battle in Wales
Lord Trimble ‘hurt’ at being ‘kept in the dark’ over amnesty letters; MSPs defer decision on giving Edward Snowden asylum.
Stephen Tall: Why my heart won’t be too heavy this week when I vote Conservative (in a manner of speaking)
Clegg has failed to make the positive case for reform, which grieves me. And Cameron is making a case for it which will grieve much of his party.
Garvan Walshe: The mining disaster that may end Erdogan’s presidential ambitions
His security men gave the miners’ relatives the treatment previously reserved for the decadent “alcoholics” and “homosexuals” of GeziPark.
Priti Patel MP: This is the most successful Euro-sceptic government since Thatcher’s. So vote Conservative on Thursday.
Miliband and Labour are relying on divisions on the Right to prop them up. Let’s not give the them that satisfaction.
Iain Dale: I’ll vote for Ford and Hannan – but not Andreasen, Ashworth, Van Orden or Campbell-Bannerman
Why I’ll have Nick Griffin on my show. Why I won’t have Mo Ansar on my show. And: the duplicity of Conservative MPs