It’s pretty obvious that the ill-fated Russia re-set button produced before a bemused Sergey Lavrov by an excited Hillary Clinton back in 2009 is now sitting prominently in the Russian Foreign Ministry’s famed Museum of Diplomatic Curiosities, an exhibit put there for young diplomats to show them how not to […]
The latest European Speechwriters Network event in London has passed off well. Many top names from the world of British and wider speechwriting (Phil Collins, Max Atkinson, Martin and Martha Shovel) and others did their stuff. I was pleased to meet Denise Graveline, over from the USA. She has two […]
Over at PunditWire my latest piece, this time on how to use subtle framing and reframing skills of the sort used by mediators to create a subtle bad smell around people and policies you don’t like, all the while pretending you’re being reasonable and objective: Framing is all around us […]
Another sizzling interview with Camille Paglia, who proclaims on her latest book and life in general: I don’t like reality shows and have never watched them, but I’m addicted to “Real Housewives” because it’s authentic old-time soap opera reborn! But beyond that, the shows are all about glamour — make […]
A tongue in cheek (so to speak) Tweet by me this afternoon led to a micro Twitter spat on Gender and Sexuality. Cor! This is what started it: Charles Crawford@CharlesCrawford If it’s ok for women not to have men frisk them at airport security, why is it not ok for me […]
The topless Femen activists are profiled (so to speak) in the Guardian. A new generation of militant über-feminists? Or preening nudist ninnies? Read the rich vein of comments and decide for yourself.
Compare and contrast two brilliant pieces up on Browser. This one about the momentous moments leading up to Dwight Eisenhower’s decision to launch the invasion of Normandy – 2,000,000 people (mostly men) ‘poised like a coiled spring’, waiting to surge bravely across the English Channel to attack the well-entrenched Nazi forces. […]
My piece over at Telegraph Blogs about language teaching and learning in UK schools has attracted 226 comments so far. First, an apology to Will Hutton. My piece said that Hutton’s Guardian article on this subject did not make clear that learning languages is hard work. Openmind2010 points out that […]
Famous Australian philosopher Tim Blair has coined a trenchant saying which is now known round the world as Blair’s Law. It illuminates a depressing but seemingly inexorable tendency: "… the ongoing process by which the world’s multiple idiocies are becoming one giant, useless force" Almost anything said by the Western world’s […]
Another sharp piece by Tim Worstall, this time over at Forbes: For labour and product market protectionism, decent public sector wages and benefits, are the “European Model”. And what’s being said here is that you can either have the European Model or you can have the European Currency. His article […]
