Katharine Birbalsingh asks why any sane parent would want to send a son to Eton. The answer is all about aspiration and ambition, of course. Not everyone’s cup of tea, plus an option available only to a few lucky parents. But it’s worth mentioning that Eton is a towering if […]
Iain Dale has stopped blogging in favour of his LBC and publishing life. Gulp. Every month his site steered some new readers to this one. That will dry up. I must say that whereas he had far too little to say about European issues for my own taste, what I […]
I try to market myself as a public speaker and speech-writer. But I can’t dream of riches like this from mere oratory: Mr Miliband records that he received a “payment of £25,000 for lecture at Sir Bani Yas Forum on Future of Middle East, Abu Dhabi”. … His travel and […]
This afternoon I was briefly on LBC with James Whale who asked some questions about the impact of Wikileaking. My core points ran something like this. All organisations including LBC and firms which LBC listeners worked for had some reasonable expectation of privacy. Governments were no different. Some of the […]
These Britblog Roundups are getting erratic. This one, for example, is a week late. The previously scheduled one never appeared. Nonetheless, pressing on, let’s start with what really matters. The arrival of British fish and chips in Poland. An unapologetic feminist and trade union activist is unimpressed with […]
Here’s a question. How do you attack a highly protected Iranian computer system not linked to the Internet? Here’s the (obviously well briefed) answer. A virus which does all sorts of ingenious things in sequence, very fast, and without being spotted… In case you’re thinking about having a go yourself, […]
Peggy Noonan was one of Ronald Reagan’s speechwriters. One of her (and his) finest moments was this: She famously gave candidate Obama some fine words of support during his election campaign: He has within him the possibility to change the direction and tone of American foreign policy, which need changing; […]
Just read this from the BBC about Iran’s dilemma over whether to stone women to death, or not: The Iranian authorities like to portray an image of a country and a system misperceived and misrepresented in the West. It is an image that plays well with some western liberals, who […]
I have just been sent a nice letter from Baroness Nicholson of Winterbourne inviting me to be a witness before the new All-Party Parliamentary Group on Foreign Affairs when it launches its first inquiry into UK foreign policy. Any ideas on what I should say? (And no, NC, I am […]
Over in the USA the Republicans – boosted by Tea Party energy – look set to win big tomorrow in the latest rounds of US elections. Pundits pore away over why President Obama’s erstwhile omnipotent appeal has waned. Is he too aloof, too clever, too Left, too moderate? Has he […]
