Always fascinating to see self-styled progressives retreating in confusion, trying to cover their errors by (of course) blaming someone or something else. Preferably the Tea Party tendency in the USA. Take John Weeks (economist and Professor Emeritus at SOAS, University of London). Here he is over at Social Europe Journal […]
Here’s another truly horrible piece at Social Europe Journal that caught my beady eye. It’s by one Kinga Pozniak (someone of Polish origin no doubt, an anthropologist who lectures at the Western University in London. Not London, England. London, Canada). It’s entitled "Poland’s ACTA Protests – Molecular Change in an unlikely […]
Small ‘unofficial’ referendum in northern Kosovo – not many dead. In case you haven’t noticed, the Serb population of northern Kosovo have set up and run their own referendum on whether to accept rule by the institutions of Kosovo. The answer, to no-one’s surprise: No! As the EU knows to […]
My piece about the latest Summit over at Daily Telegraph blogs is up, prompting the usual vivid comments from Daily Telegraph readers: This piece by Crawford simply comes across as Civil Service gobbeldy-gook and demonstrates that he’s no understanding of any of this. Is that why the Civil Service seem to […]
The other day we had the pleasure of meeting senior colleagues at Edelman London, part of the global team who prepare the annual Edelman Trust Barometer. The online survey aims explicitly at educated people round the world who follow current affairs. This year’s survey concluded that trust in governments had suffered […]
Here is my new Daily Telegraph blog piece comparing the problems of the Eurozone with the fates of the USSR and former Yugoslavia. In those two cases (but for very different reasons) the Centre had became the problem and duly crashed, whereas in the case of the Eurozone the majority […]
Part of the problem facing the Eurozoners as they struggle to convince global markets that all is under control so DON’T PANIC is identifying what exactly is the issue which needs solving. After all, they might make a bad situation worse by misdiagnosing what needs to be done. Views on […]
One of the themes of this website is how our institutions and beliefs of all shapes and sizes are struggling to cope with the way new technology creates complexity at ever-soaring rates. In other words, the faster our machines the faster they can do things and generate information, which in turn […]
Here is a nicely turned interview with Polish writer Andrzej (Andrew) Stasiuk where he gives us some deliciously naughty thoughts about European nationalism and German hegemony: Before Europe existed because it knew how to take risks, it went to sea to seek a fortune. Today it just accumulates and fears […]
Even on Christmas Eve – or maybe especially on Christmas Eve – we need to be aware of those repellamt people who stroll around the Western chattering classes exploiting the historic privilege of democracy to make excuses for the inexcusable. Here are some classic examples. Enough. Just go away. Except […]
