What of Liberal Fascism in practice? The picture as seen from Europe is depressing, and getting worse. In the USA the range of ideas, choices and voices heard is far wider than here. When some new policy is proposed in the USA it is likely to meet a […]
I have been invited to take part in a debate in London later this year to discuss the proposition that "Western Policy in the Balkans since 1991 has been a Disaster". As someone involved in formulating part of that policy I am down to argue against this proposition. What to […]
Background on the fascinating saga of my leaked email back in 2005 which was splashed over the front page of the Sunday Times. What do EU Budget negotiations and Clint Eastwood have in common? Lots. Once upon a time the EU decided that it needed a new Treaty to move […]
British MPs take an important vote today on the Treaty on European Union. A fine British Parliamentary moment looms. The Conservative Party are calling for a referendum. The Labour Party say that one is not necessary. The LibDems are being ordered not to vote, or something. From the classic UK […]
Are political processes and indeed state structures based largely on ‘ethnicity’ or ‘national’ principles Good, or Bad? As we had an amicable exchange about the latest tensions in the Balkans the other evening, a former senior colleague of mine said something to the effect that it was high time in modern Europe […]
One of the great cliches about Cuba is that despite all its human rights and other abuses it sure has a fine free health service which the rest of us should admire. Really? One of the ways in which any good health service keeps effective surely must be ready access to […]
As the results come in it is clear that Vladimir Zhirinovsky has failed yet again to become Russian President. He surged to prominence and even some significance in 1993 when his Liberal-Democratic Party won some 23% of the popular vote in the Duma elections. Before these important elections the […]
Russia chooses a new President tomorrow, 2 March. Without OSCE observers. When did Russia’s leadership start to tip away from seeing European Democracy as the Solution, towards seeing it as a Problem? Maybe around 6 May 1996. In the UK it was a Bank Holiday Monday morning; we expected a normal working […]
My mentioning of Marsport reminded me of another Mars moment in my life. It came in early November 2005. I had sent an email to the FCO team in which I attempted to explain what had happened in Polish politics that previous week, when the wrangling following Poland’s 2005 Parliamentary […]
Nazism or Communism? Which was ‘worse’? And why? I sent the FCO some thoughts on this subject when I was HM Ambassador in Warsaw. I pointed out that today’s Europe would look and feel rather different if Hitler was lying embalmed in Berlin just as Lenin lies creepily in Moscow. […]
