Very sad news this morning. Jozef Oleksy, one of Poland’s smartest politicians, has died. Oleksy (see a Wikipedia summary here) was one of those smart former communists (he was for a while a secret informer for Poland’s communist military intelligence) who smoothly made the transition to European social democracy after […]
Back in the mists of time I wrote this: In a city there’s a nice large green public park, where families and individuals stroll around happily. One day a group of leather-jacketed aggressive foul-mouthed types and some snarly dogs turn up and postion themselves prominently in one corner. This happens […]
My latest piece for Commentator, co-authored with Pratik Chougule, describes in broad terms how we might do some good solid work to build on the Obama Administration move to start normalising US relations with Cuba, by actively but sensibly doing the spadework needed to help Cuba get ready for the day a […]
UPDATE: An interesting take on all this by Marc Champion – does Vladimir Putin in fact want a deal? * * * * * Today I watched online most of the three hours of Vladimir Putin addressing a huge media throng in Moscow. Here’s my thoughts as given to the […]
Events in Russia’s economy are accelerating in the wrong direction. No doubt at some point things will pick up again. But for now the trends are ghastly. Amidst all the analysis of what is ‘really’ causing the rouble to slump, this one by James Miller reads well: What is the […]
Here’s a question. If country X grows its economy 1% faster than country Y over ten years, what’s the difference in outcomes? I previously looked at Serbia and Zimbabwe in this sense, trying to calculate the True Costs of Stupidity: Thus the Cost of Milosevic(ism) can be accurately measured. It is […]
My new piece for the Telegraph is on immigration. It turns on the distinction between people who enter the country by following the rules, and those who don’t: Immigrants into the UK fall into different broad categories. Rich people buying an exclusive UK pad. Foreigners ready to invest their money […]
Tomorrow at LVS School in Ascot I am giving a presentation to the public on the general subject of Spies. Always a fascinating theme down the centuries. Plenty about the subject here on my website, including my piece for DIPLOMAT in 2010 that looked briefly at the differences between HUMINT, […]
The magnificent, consistently funny blaxploitation spoof movie Black Dynamite is an unexpected source of sophisticated public speaking insight. The hero of the film is Black Dynamite himself, a laconic unstoppable African-American kung fu master who is enraged when hard drugs even get into the orphanage – yes, the orphanage – […]
The G20 Summit in Australia ends. The assembled leaders start the long flights home. The results are in the communique, a classic example of a dull, badly written, important text: We have agreed on a set of voluntary leading practices to promote and prioritise quality investment, particularly in infrastructure. To […]
