One of the things British diplomats do in foreign parts is study the local media, to keep up with the obvious news but also to follow in a deeper way what makes those societies tick. Armed with good basic background understanding, they then fan out to talk to the editors […]
This article is fascinating for its Manifest Badness, on so many levels simultaneously. It’s all about: the latest example of a noticeable social trend, one that we shall call, obviously, “dolliness”, after the woman who embodies its spirit. Think of the Spice Girls tour and the Sex and the City […]
My new Total Politics piece is out, full of Helpful Tips about how a new Minister should start to run a government Department. It’s quick to register and you can then see it on the E-zine. More in the pipeline for issues 3 and 4.
Martin Kettle in the Guardian on Labour’s horrible byelection loss in Glasgow yesterday: Almost no Labour MP, including Brown, is now safe. Glasgow East was Labour’s 25th safest seat in the UK and its third safest in Scotland. The seat had been Labour since the 1920s. If the 22.5% swing […]
News that the Arabic word for God has been found miraculously enscribed on a piece of meat in Nigeria alas does not impress me. When I was in Serbia the erudite paper Twilight Zone carried a picture of the image of Milosevic which had been found on a piece of […]
The steady insight of Lord Owen, with the deafening noise emitted by Simon Jenkins. Good piece in the Independent too. But they spoil it by adding a list of War criminals still at large. These people are not war criminals. They are war crimes suspects or indictees, unless and until they […]
Nigel Short has a lively use of words, as well as a lively chess style. See the detailed rulings on his use of the word ‘dunderheads’ to describe two senior chess officials. Defamatory or ‘mere vulgar abuse’? Who said that chess is boring?
I was a great fan of the Balkan ‘yellow press’ in all its exotic glory. Presumably these strange papers and magazines have a non-trivial readership otherwise they would not be published in such profusion. So as Ambassador wanting to develop insight into the thinkings of society as a whole, I […]
Because it allows massive direct hits on Utter Fatheadedness, and then documents carefully the attempts of the fatheads to cover their tracks, giving millions of people hours of amusement watching it all. Never thought I’d say it, but the time has come to vote SNP. Anything but this.
Crawford v Murray (if that is what it is) has reached the Evening Standard’s Londoner’s Diary (alas not available on their website): Mandarin puts knife into FO’s loose cannon UNCIVIL war has broken out at the Foreign Office. Charles Crawford, the retired former ambassador to Warsaw, has broken ranks […]
