I was back stalking in the long corridors of the Foreign Office today, to give a talk on behalf of ADRg Ambassadors. I put in a word for Mediation as an example of the hard-edged soft power tool the UK now needed to be ffective at a time of growing global uncertainty […]
Via Tim Worstall, this magnificent essay by Michael Lewis in Vanity Fair about the cultural and other problems which have led Greece far down the road of folly. It’s quite long, but all the more devastating for that as the writer follows the mysteries of corruption and tax-cheating into almost unbelievable […]
Remember the EU’s financial crisis which threatened to bring down the Eurozone a few months ago? No. Anyway, according to Baseline Scenario it is still waiting to pounce, this time on Ireland which is often held up as the right way to deal with Eurozone member states’ debt problems: The […]
Today the latest edition of DIPLOMAT magazine arrived. I opened it to find an article written by me which I could not remember writing(!). So I read it with much enjoyment and appreciation. Check it out. It describes my attempts as an argumentative young diplomat to persuade the Embassy in […]
Off go sundry Crawfs to Poland for a few days, myself mainly working. Not much posted here this month. Am I running out of steam for this blogging business? Or is it just grey, muggy, flat August malaise time? Sigh. Quickies to keep you amused for a few days while […]
Here’s an interesting one. The German Foreign Minister Guido Westerwelle is homosexual. He has decided not to take his partner with him on official visits to countries where homosexuality is a prosecutable crime. His somewhat obscure argument as quoted in the excellent Spiegel Online: We want to promote the concept […]
The Daily Telegraph reports that the new EU Ambassador In Washington Joao Vale de Almeida is bent on elbowing out of the way such diplomatic minnows as HM Ambassador Nigel Sheinwald: Mr Vale de Almeida has stressed to Washington officials and politicians that under the EU’s’ Lisbon Treaty, he has […]
Is hosted by a Very British dude. Including a deft analysis by The Melangerie about the impact (or not) on the British economy of abolishing slavery in the C19. It responds to a piece by Johann Hari which attacks working conditions in China. And farewell Nee Naw. Oh, and here […]
This morning I appeared on LBC‘s Nick Ferrari Breakfast radio programme. I was invited to join Mehdi Hasan (New Statesman) to talk about the forthcoming visit to the UK of Pakistan’s President Zardari. Mehdi led off, unexpectedly (for me!) praising David Cameron for speaking out about the fact that elements in Pakistan […]
My piece analysing David Cameron’s high-profile speeches in Turkey and India has attracted some attention, and various well-taken comments. Part of the problem for a speechwriter for a top politician is to work out who the audience is, and craft the words accordingly. Most speeches of any consequence by (say) […]
