Opinion / Men, Women, Gender

Who Isn’t My Neighbour? E-Diplomacy

e-Diplomacy in action? Or e-Diplomacy inaction? Here is a version of the piece I wrote for the latest issue of DIPLOMAT magazine on how I invented e-Diplomacy and tried to put it into effect in a nervous FCO, too many years ahead of my time… e-Diplomacy: Who Isn’t My Neighbour? Where Julius […]

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Britblog Roundup 228

Is here. At Philobiblon, often Green, always feminist. A couple of links caught my eye. Can a blogger be a credible candidate for Parliament, or are there likely to be too many free-thinking hostage to fortune quotes on the blog for oponents to dig out? Libertarian Lib-Dem Charlotte Gore reckons […]

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Britblog Roundup 226: UK and Europe Edition

Welcome to BBRU 226. First things first Can you bake a good cake? Misssy M is struggling. Does the Objectification of Women via the explosion of pornography really lead to bad outcomes for women? Not at the Himmelgarten Café. Update: And, to get us into the swing of what follows, a magnificent example from Liberal England of European […]

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LGBT Issues And Diplomacy: What Works Where?

My successor as HM Ambassador in Warsaw is in the Daily Mail being asked about the FCO’s policy to ‘promote’ Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual And Transgender (LGBT) rights. This question was put: Asked whether he would raise the rainbow flag at the British embassies in Iran or Saudi Arabia, Mr Todd […]

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Britblog Roundup 225

Is here, hosted by Slugger O’Toole, although to keep us on our toes he labels it BBRU 213. With the Archbishop analysing the Caroline Flint fiasco. A defining moment for New Labour-style ‘feminism’?

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President Obama’s Speech: A Category Mistake

Here is the full text of President Obama’s Cairo speech. It had many strong points. A friendly, open-hearted yet serious and businesslike tone. Lots of inclusive words such as ‘respect’ and ‘partnership’. Some quite firm lines on Israel and its right to exist, to the point of being seen as surprisingly […]

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Rural England Votes, 4 June 2009

Not having voted in a UK election since 1987 or thereabouts, I made my way at dawn to the local polling station here in the countryside to be ready to strike a belated but fast blow today for Democracy. I was stunned by what I found. The local village hall […]

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Setting An Example

Was there a massacre by Sri Lankan forces as they finished off the Tamil Tigers? And did the UN know about it? Seems so. The numbers of people killed look to go well beyond the Srebrenica war crime. Critics of such horrors often miss one of the unspoken points about […]

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What Is Government Anyway?

Danny Finkelstein argues well in the Times that politics are getting more fragmented and less controlled: In his book The Long Tail Chris Anderson points out how the market for, say, books has in the past been constrained by the shop shelf space available to display. Online shopping has abolished this […]

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Britblog Roundup 221: Compost

Is hosted this week by Cabalamat. Lots of links on the usual subjects (feminism, politics) plus a stirring account of the creation of compost – with plenty of pictures – from Low Carbon Lifestyle who is a significant expert on the subject. Given what is going on in Westminster, a pile of […]

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