Opinion / British Politics and Society

Will the EU Survive? Back to First Principles

A handy round up of some of my wise and prescient thoughts from the past year on the state of the European Union. 1   18 October 2010 … Which prompts me to post this extract from my Krakow presentation, a slide entitled Will EU Diplomacy Survive? Indeed, such are the […]

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A Great Indian Sportsmanship Moment

Many of my loyal readers will not follow cricket. Nor do I, tuning into it fleetingly every few years when England manage to do something better than hopeless. But now, armed with Sky HD TV, a fiery England side and nothing else to do, I am enthralled by this England v […]

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Towering Babble

More mega-comment web-factories are appearing, before our very eyes. Here is Iain Dale’s new Dale & Co. site, a self-styled current affairs mega-blog. I of course immediately click on World Affairs, and what do I find? Not much, including this curious little piece by one James Chartlton (sic), a trainee […]

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Foreign Office and ‘Murdoch’s Pocket’

Here is Craig Murray rumbling on about the fact that News International recently held a reception in the FCO: Last week the Murdoch phone hacking empire hired the palatial rooms of the Foreign and Commonwealth Office for their summer party. There Rebekah Brooks and Murdoch junior sumptuously entertained their bought […]

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Poland’s EU Presidency

Nosemonkey praises the energetic start of the Polish Presidency, not least a feisty speech by Polish PM Donald Tusk. The text of this important speech is not (as far as I can see) on the Polish Prime Minister’s official website, even in Polish. So we have to do with some […]

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UK Uncut meet Bono at Glastonbury!

Busy anti-circumcision Left ‘activists’ UK Uncut last night tried to protest against Bono at Glastonbury! An event replete with (in?) delicious post-modern irony. The more so when U2 ‘security guards’ pounded in to seize and destroy the pretty protest balloon. Leftists! Defend private property! Readers recall my one and only encounter […]

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Leicester Zombie Attack

Leicester City Council is purporting to admit that it has made no emergency plans for a Zombie invasion: Ms Wyeth said she was unaware of any specific reference to a zombie attack in the council’s emergency plan, however some elements of it could be applied if the situation arose… Ed […]

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Diplomats: Loyal to Whom/What?

Here’s my latest article in DIPLOMAT magazine, mulling over the subject of diplomatic loyalty: … the Libya case has given rise to a spectacular number of high profile diplomatic changes of side, with one Libyan ambassador after another announcing support for the opposition forces struggling to bring down the Gaddafi […]

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If Weinergate were British

The Weinergate scandal soared to a spectacular new level yesterday in New York, when Congressman Weiner admitted to a press conference that he had lied about his obscene Twitterish activities. Not that that made his situation much better. Pressed on what he knew about the young women with whom he’d been ‘communicating’ […]

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Culture, Discipline and the Eurozone: Smokin’!

Exhibit A: a superb article describing research which shows convincingly how the influence of the bureaucratic-cultural disciplines of the Austro-Hungarian Empire lives on in today’s Europe. Thus: Our results show that past formal institutions can leave a long-lasting legacy through cultural norms – even after some are generations of being governed […]

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