Max Atkinson has picked up my comment as posted on his site about what makes a speech memorable and had a look at the famous speech by Sir Geoffrey Howe seen as a pivotal moment in the events which led to Mrs Thatcher’s resignation as Prime Minister. He asked if […]
A reader sends me this striking quote from Coningsby by Benjamin Disraeli, spoken in the novel by Sindonia, the brilliant Sephardic Jew: I always look upon Diplomatists as the Hebrews of politics; without country, political creeds, popular convictions, that strong reality of existence which pervades the career of an eminent citizen […]
RFE/RL has many excellent pieces on the less settled parts of Europe and beyond. Here is a gloomy piece about the current trends in former Yugoslavia, arguing that with so many other problems going on elsewhere the ‘international community’ is not gripping Balkanic divisons which are reappearing busily all over […]
Remember the fuss about the oppressive and unworkable FCO rules on what former diplomats might or might not say in public? We now have new rules! And they are actually sensible. They put the emphasis on intelligent people using their Judgement: The FCO relies on former officials to exercise their […]
My former boss Sir Emyr Jones Parry was put forward to be the new High Representative in Bosnia. But there seems to be a problem. The Russians are unhappy with him, plus the Americans are unhappy with another EU candidate Valentin Inzko from Austria. Poor Bosnia. And Herzegovina. And indeed poor […]
If the EU is intended to be a sort of new über-country, getting rid of all that horrid provincial national feeling in favour of a new Euro-togetherness, it makes sense for the European Commission to take little interest in the fate of national soccer teams even if others do. Hence […]
We had the privilege last week of joining a small private dinner in London in honour of Baroness Thatcher. I took the opportunity to congratulate her on her unswerving insistence on Honest Money. See eg this speech in 1984: Today we have the lowest rate of inflation since the 1960s. […]
Spiegel Online International carries all sorts of excellent pieces, beautifully written in or translated into English for a wider audience. This one about Islamic extremists in Sarajevo is thought-provoking. And not all the thoughts are positive: The obliteration of Israel is heralded in a torrent of words. "Zionist terrorists," the […]
Here are two handy quotations: It is very hard to be optimistic about revenues. The problem is not just the recession, for that has barely begun. The problem is structural. Too much of the revenue comes from high-earners… The top 1 per cent of income-tax payers contributes more than 20 […]
It is justifiable if a British entrepreneur sets up a cheese business in France so that French cheese can be sold to the French. But it is not justifiable if that French cheese is sold to the British, undermining the British cheese industry! The wise words of Nicolas Sarkozy, president of France. Or […]
