The latest developments on the Torture issue – the speech by MI5 chief Jonathan Evans and then the High Court decision in favour of release of secret US material concerning Binyam Mohamed – are (in their different ways) further important steps towards clarifying how if at all we deal with […]
This time a curious and very unastonishing piece in the Spectator by Martin Bright, which uses as some vital evidence Craig Murray’s long-lost fleeting relationship with Kaminski in the mid-1990s. I have posted a comment suggesting that media bunnies might like to ask David Miliband three questions: did No 10 […]
One of the typical BBC-style clever retorts to those who say that our language is not declining goes thus: Languages evolve, as we all know. They have to. Duh. English now is far removed from the language of Henry I. If technology and texting and the rest are causing English […]
Here is a post by Bloggers Circle member Bracknell Blog complaining in not altogether coherent terms about the fact that an England national team World Cup qualifier football match is be available to a wider audience only by a pay-to-view Internet service: So why is this not being reported as […]
Labour are busy with their latest Dead Cat (as I gather it is known in the trade) strategising. The Dead Cat plan is simple. You identify a scrap of bad meat somewhere near your opponent’s house. Then start screaming at the top of your voice that your opponent has a […]
Ben Emmott in the Times says that if Ireland (as expected) says Yes to the Lisbon Treaty, the UK Conservatives need to shut up and move on. Not that he is too impressed with the way the issue has been dealt with: The whole charade should anger anyone who cares […]
Chekov at Three Thousand Versts generously takes up my posting on the psychology of Russia’s foreign policy, and responds: In addition, we can agree that insensitivity to Russia’s concerns, from Nato and other western structures, caused Russian disillusionment which effects ‘cooperation’ to this day. Nato’s support for Albanian separatists in […]
Last year I wrote some pieces about How to Negotiate. These and other pieces with an implicit or explicit Negotiation theme are linked here. Such as this one: It does not follow that being bloody-minded or even threatening force actually works. So much depends on context, the objective balance of […]
The UK’s ‘devolution’ arrangements are complicated and either stupidly inconsistent or elegantly tailored to meet varying local requirements, depending how you look at it. Here is the official summary: Devolution of powers Following referendums in Scotland and Wales in 1997, and in both parts of Ireland in 1998, the UK […]
As many senior international dignitaries gather in Gdansk today to commemorate the start of WW2, Russian Prime Minister Putin (one of the guests) has written an open letter to Poland to give a clear and (as of now) definitive Russian view on the Molotov/Ribbentrop Pact. Here is the Russian official […]
