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A new row about Big Ben has broken out after it emerged that a historic lamp installed by Queen Victoria to show that Parliament is sitting will be turned off for months.

The House of Commons confirmed that the Ayrton Light at the top of the Elizabeth Tower which houses Big Ben will be switched off for months while maintenance work is carried out.

It will be the first time in over 70 years that the lantern has not been lit when MPs or peers are sitting.

The last time it failed to shine was when German bombers were strafing London during the Second World War.

It came as John Bercow, the Speaker of the House of Commons, defied Theresa May, the Prime Minister, and refused to order a rethink of the decision to silence Big Ben for four years from this Monday to allow for the maintenance of the great bell's clocktower.

Nigel Evans MP, a former deputy Speaker, asked why the lamp could not be restored...

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'Silence of the Bongs' row grows over switching off of Big Ben's historic 'democracy lamp' above Parliament - Telegraph.co.uk

Fighting Nazis is a good thing, but fighting Nazis doesnt necessarily make you or your cause good. By my lights this is simply an obvious fact.

The greatest Nazi-killer of the 20th century was Josef Stalin. He also killed millions of his own people and terrorized, oppressed, enslaved or brutalized tens of millions more.

Nazism was evil. Soviet Communism was evil. Its fine to believe that Nazism was more evil than Communism. That doesnt make Communism good.

Yet confusion on this point poisoned politics in America and abroad for generations.

Part of the problem is psychological. Theres a natural tendency to think that when people, or movements, hate each other, it must be because theyre opposites. This assumption overlooks the fact that many indeed, most of the great conflicts and hatreds in human history are derived from what Sigmund Freud called the narcissism of minor differences.

Most tribal hatreds are between very similar groups. The European wars of religion were between peoples who often shared the same language and culture but differed on the correct way to practice the Christian faith. The Sunni-Shia split in the Muslim world is the source of great animosity between very similar peoples.

The young Communists and fascists fighting for power in the streets of 1920s Germany had far more in common with each other than they had with decent liberals or conservatives, as we understand those terms today.

The second part of the problem wasnt innocent confusion, but sinister propaganda. As Hitler solidified power and effectively outlawed the Communist Party of Germany, the Communist International abandoned its position that socialist and progressive groups that were disloyal to Moscow were fascist and instead encouraged Communists everywhere to build popular fronts against the common enemy of Nazism.

These alliances of convenience were a great propaganda victory for Communists around the world because they bolstered the myth that Communists were just members of the left coalition in the fight against Hitler, bigotry, fascism, etc.

This obscured the fact that whenever the Communists had a chance to seize power, they did. Often, the first people they killed, jailed or exiled were former allies. Thats what happened in Eastern Europe, Cuba and other places of Communist success.

This history is relevant today because of the depressingly idiotic argument about whether its OK to equate antifa left-wing radicals with the neo-Nazi and white supremacist rabble that recently descended on Charlottesville, Va. The president claims there were very fine people on both sides of the protest and that the anti-fascist radicals are equally blameworthy. He borrowed from Fox News Sean Hannity the bogus term alt-left to describe the antifa radicals.

The term is bogus because, unlike the alt-right, nobody calls themselves the alt-left. Thats too bad. One of the only nice things about the alt-right is that its leaders are honest about the fact that they want nothing to do with traditional American conservatism. Like the original Nazis, they seek to replace the traditional right with their racial hogwash.

The antifa crowd has a very similar agenda with regard to American liberalism. These goons and thugs oppose free speech, celebrate violence, despise dissent and have little use for anything else in the American political tradition. But many liberals, particularly in the media, are victims of the same kind of confusion that vexed so much of American liberalism in the 20th century. Because antifa suddenly has the (alt-)right enemies, they must be the good guys.

Theyre not. And thats why this debate is so toxically stupid. Fine, antifa isnt as bad as the KKK. Who cares? Since when is being less bad than the Klan a major moral accomplishment?

In these tribal times, the impulse to support anyone who shares your enemies is powerful. But its a morally stunted reflex. This is America. Youre free to denounce totalitarians wherever you find them even if they might hate the right people.

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Fighting Nazis doesn't make 'antifa' the good guys - New York Post

DNIPRO, Ukraine (Reuters) - The wall around the Yuzhmash rocket factory in east Ukraine is in places overgrown with weeds, a sign of hard times at a plant which a new study says could be the source of engines that power North Korean missiles.

Workers at the plant have had their hours cut and wages are in arrears, but Yuzhmash denies the study's finding that unhappy employees could have been induced to steal engine technology and sell it to illicit arms dealers who passed it on to Pyongyang.

The study by a former U.S. rocket scientist, published by the London-based International Institute for Strategic Studies (IISS), concluded that missile engines used by Pyongyang derive from designs linked to only a few former Soviet factories. It based its findings mainly on photographs taken by North Korea.

A Reuters reporter who visited Yuzhmash in the city of Dnipro this week found staff struggling to make ends meet and facilities falling into disrepair. The only visible security cameras and guards around the plant were at the main entrances.

"At the moment we're working a one-day week," said Valery Vasiliev, head of the trade union at Yuzhmash.

The average wage is around $160 a month but even that is not always paid on time, he said.

"Now there are some small wage arrears -- a bit more than 40 million hryvnias ($1.4 million). We're paying it off bit by bit. There are still debts for May and June," Vasiliev said.

Yuzhmash used to be part of a state-run conglomerate that built rockets for the Soviet space and defense programs.

When the Cold War ended, it became a Ukrainian state enterprise. Its workforce shrank but it limped on, producing space rockets, mostly in partnership with the Russian plants it had worked with in the Soviet era.

After Russia annexed the Crimea peninsula from Ukraine in 2014, and a conflict began between government forces and separatists in east Ukraine, those ties were disrupted.

Yuzhmash General Director Sergei Voit told workers in January that annual revenue had fallen to a quarter of what it was before the conflict.

He listed problems including "worn-out manufacturing capacity, a hugely difficult situation with personnel ... arrears on wages, power bills and debt repayments."

The plant's chief economist, Dmitriy Nikon, told Reuters that new contracts were being signed with customers, the factory's finances had stabilized and there were plans to raise salaries by the end of the year.

"It's still tough but nevertheless I think the worst of the crisis is over," he said.

Nikon said that on average staff work three days a week, not just one, and earned an average of around $230 per month.

Defending security at the plant, Nikon said the perimeter and areas inside it were guarded, and staff had to surrender sensitive documents after each shift.

"We have not had a single instance of a finished product or a document going missing," Nikon said.

A machine-worker who said he had worked at Yuzhmash for 36 years, but did not want to be identified because he feared repercussions, complained however of a lack of investment.

"The workers aren't happy but there's not much we can do. The young people have all left, but what can someone like me do?" he said. "They say the pay might get better soon because of new orders, but it can't really get worse... They still owe us (unpaid wages)."

Technology from Ukraine has attracted the interest of North Korea in the past. In 2012, two North Koreans were sentenced by a Ukrainian court to eight years in jail after approaching an employee at a firm affiliated to Yuzhmash seeking secret rocket propulsion documents.

The engine which is the subject of the new study is around two meters tall and one meter across. Yuzhmash's sister company Yuzhnoye, which handles design, said the engines used by North Korea did not match anything the plant had ever produced.

The factory no longer has the capacity to manufacture the RD-250 engines referred to in the IISS report, it said, and all RD-250 engines fit for flight use that it produced had left the factory and been shipped to legitimate clients.

Some U.S. intelligence officials also dispute the findings of the study.

Ukraine is a signatory to an international pact called the Missile Technology Control Regime but the pact has no external verification mechanism.

Ukrainian officials have said the components mentioned in the IISS study were more likely to have come from Russia. Moscow denies this.

Additional reporting by Pavel Polityuk, Editing by Timothy Heritage

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Ukraine plant sucked into North Korea missile row has fallen on hard times - Reuters

The above image was created by Toby Lewin for a Blizzard Entertainment fan art contest in 2011, and has since spread far and wide around the internet and the world. On Tuesday, it popped up on a monument honoring Ukrainian soldiers.

A monument depicting a sword being driven into Russia was unveiled in Ukraine on Tuesday, and on the front of the statue is a modified version of the Diablo fan art. The image is of the character Tyrael holding a sword while surrounded by enemies, but his outstretched wings are painted blue and yellow to represent the Ukrainian flag.

The monument to Ukrainian soldiers and a close-up image of the modified 'Diablo' fan art.

Lewin said he's aware of his artwork being spread all over the place without attribution or permission, but this particular situation is pretty random.

"I get messages that it's being sold as a poster or mouse pad somewhere online but this is definitely the first war memorial," he said.

It's an impressive piece of art that conveys a lot of feelings, which is part of what gives it its popularity, Lewin guesses.

"I was pretty heavily depressed at the time, so struggled for weeks to claw the image together, but in the end perhaps part of that struggle was imprinted on the image and it became a metaphor for the individual struggle through uncertain odds and insurmountable challenges," he said. "Perhaps that's why it seems to resonate with some people."

The Ukrainian monument specifically honors soldiers that fought against Russian occupants in the Anti-Terrorist Operation Zone in eastern Ukraine. That area of Ukraine was invaded by Russia in 2014 and has been the site of an ongoing struggle between Ukrainians, Russia, and pro-Russia separatists.

Lewin doesn't seem too upset that a version of his artwork is being used in the Ukrainian monument.

"While it's frustrating that it's often used and resold without permission, part of me is also glad that some people find if meaningful," he said.

It should go without saying but, even if you have the best intentions, get an artist's permission if you want to use their artwork. Otherwise it's stealing.

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'Diablo' fan art shows up on Ukrainian war memorial, to artist's surprise - Mashable

DW: Mr. Milbradt, what message does a former German state premier have for a country undergoing major political reforms like Ukraine?

Georg Milbradt: That it was right to move to decentralize the government. Meaning, it was right to give as much power in shaping daily life back to the people as possible, taking into account the interests of the country as a whole. Questions involving public services are best discussed and decided on the lower levels of government. It's easier to influence these things on the local level than it is on the national level.

Milbradt says that the locals have responded positively

Germany has a federal government and is divided into states - Ukraine on the other hand has seen the decentralization of state power. What are the differences between the two concepts?

Here, I'm only talking about the local level. Under a federal government there is a middle level: territories or states. It's not like that in Ukraine. In many federal states and centralized European countries there are self-administered regions - think of Poland, France or the Scandinavian countries. One has nothing to do with the other - they're only concerned with their communities, possibly also the larger territories or regions. There, the will of the people can be directly implemented. In a smaller community, in a place of fiveor ten thousand inhabitants, different policies are implemented than in a country of 45 million people like Ukraine.

Read more: NATO in Baltics learns from Ukraine's mistakes

You have been working here as a consultant for a long time and know the people and the country well. What are the greatest obstacles in regards to decentralization?

I want to begin in a different way: Ukraine has been seeing great success since the 2014 revolution. Decentralization had been discussed before then, but it wasn't until after the revolution that people had the chance to make it happen. And they began with the right step: giving the rural communities, i.e. the smallest communities, the opportunity to merge, giving them more rights and the appropriate amount of money for them to fulfill their news tasks.

When you go to these newly organized communities, you see that the mayors have actually accomplished something with their money and their new power. This is also reflected in the poll numbers in Ukraine: Decentralization is seen very positively by the population, especially in the rural areas. In the big cities - such as Kyiv - you can't tell, because Kyiv hasn't been impacted by these reforms yet.

Read more: Ukraine president calls for an end to Russian aggression

Ukraine's capital city, Kyiv, is not seeing direct effects of the decentralization

In the armed conflict against separatists and their Russian supporters in Donbass there is also talk of a special status, such as perhaps partial autonomy for communities like Donetsk and Luhansk. Can the concept of decentralization help bring an end to the conflict?

Not in regards to the separatists! I would say it's the opposite way around: If Ukraine succeeds in developing its economy through decentralization, as Poland did 25 years ago, then this will also have a big impact on those communities not under the control of the Ukrainian government.

Read more: Ukraine separatist 'Little Russia' sparks concern over peace deal

You are currently the special envoy of the German government for the Ukrainian reform agenda. At the center of this agenda is decentralization and good governance. Where will your emphasis lie?

I will initially focus on decentralization, since it's a strategically important point. Through this a part of good governance will already be accomplished. That will then be the second part that I'll focus on. Part of this will be reforming the public institutions. Since there is already a law that needs to be implemented, a corresponding law for the local level is needed. That's my second priority.

Western experts and observers in Kiev have had the impression in recent months that the country has been falling behind in the fight against corruption. What are your plans to give Ukraine a new impetus to fight corruption?

In the request that President Poroshenko sent the G7 countries through Chancellor Merkel, the topic of corruption was also addressed. But someone else must deal with this.

Georg Milbradt is the German special envoy for the Ukrainian reform agenda. He is occupied primarily with the theme of governance and decentralization. He was Minister President of the German state of Saxony from 2002 to 2008.

This interview was conducted by Christian F. Trippe.

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Special Envoy Georg Milbradt: Ukraine has achieved major success - Deutsche Welle