My latest for the Telegraph: if V Putin would enjoy #Brexit, does that mean that it’s a bad idea? The end of the Cold War was the moment of moments for radically restructuring Europe’s economic and strategic architecture. Europe’s then leaders blew the opportunity, choosing instead to stick with their […]
Here is an interesting piece about Judith Gough, HM Ambassador to Ukraine, who is accompanied on her posting by her female civil partner: “the first full discussion with a member of the press about life as an out-and-proud ambassador”. Note the desperate improvisation of the FCO scouring its sprawling building […]
Here’s a link to the original documents comprising the UK/EU ‘settlement’ that are the basis for PM David Cameron now campaigning for a Yes vote. So, question. Is the settlement ‘legally binding’? Yes! says Mr Cameron. No! says the Brexit tendency. A highly simplified analysis of this question is given by the BBC: The Vienna Convention on the Law of […]
Battle is joined. In the coming weeks the bemused UK public will mull over the pros and cons of the UK’s EU membership, and then give their view in a fateful referendum in June. As US ambassador-poet James Russell Lowell put it in the C19: Once to every man and […]
Most people at some point in their lives face a daunting moment when their presentation skills will be tested as never before: a job interview. This is not ‘public speaking’ in the normal sense, but all the same principles and techniques apply. Being clear and convincing. Maybe a bit firm […]
I am busy on my latest webinar series for international officials on Speechwriting and Talking-Points. I proclaim into my computer and they watch wherever they are around the planet. Haha I tidied the room behind me. One of the core ideas that always strikes home like a thunderbolt in a […]
Here’s my latest piece for DIPLOMAT magazine, on global security or not. It starts with a quote immediately familiar to diligent readers here: WHO SAID THIS (the answer is at the end of this piece)? “Introduce a little anarchy. Upset the established order, and everything becomes chaos … Oh, and you […]
Here is my piece over at Commentator about the emerging ‘settlement’ on the UK’s relationship with the European Union: Even under benign conditions it is next to impossible within the EU to have a limited and controlled treaty renegotiation. Different member states queue up to press their respective cases for […]
In the debate last week on the foreign policy success or otherwise of President Obama, I made the point that he had offered Cuba the normalisation of diplomatic relations without pressing for anything (even rhetorically) in return. Why not use this high-profile move to make the case strongly for a […]
The Hillary Clinton Ship of Destiny sails on, despite gaping Emailgate holes appearing above and below the waterline. Back in August last year I wrote about her already ghastly email problems: So for me the very fact that Hillary Clinton set up a parallel substantive private email arrangement for much […]
