My earlier posting about Vladimir Putin’s ‘Letter to Poles’ has been taken up (in a shorter version) by RFE/RL. Have a look at the comments from pro-Russian types, which are especially agitated on the subject of whether the Red Army in 1920 was attempting another ‘land grab’ by invading Western […]
Tim Worstall links to an insane comment on the site of progressive Matthew Yglesias who mulls over Youth Decay: In general, teenagers are going to be low on the educational attainment scale and also lacking in impressive job qualifications beyond formal education. It’s perhaps a sign of a more efficient, […]
Here I am, at Gatwick Airport en route to the 19th Economic Forum in Krynica (southern Poland). This is a sort of ‘economic Davos of central/eastern Europe’, a major and invariably well attended gathering. The main website is here. My own modest role in and amongst so many Good and […]
Three Thousands Versts of Loneliness analyses Putin’s approach to Soviet and Russian history as revealed in his letter to Poland: The ‘Putinite regime’ is commonly portrayed as if it were intent on overseeing Stalin’s rehabilitation, often with the implied aim of entrenching its own, purportedly authoritarian, project. As this weblog […]
As many senior international dignitaries gather in Gdansk today to commemorate the start of WW2, Russian Prime Minister Putin (one of the guests) has written an open letter to Poland to give a clear and (as of now) definitive Russian view on the Molotov/Ribbentrop Pact. Here is the Russian official […]
Who is to lead Europe? The French and Germans, of course. Who else? Gordon Brown is barely surviving as UK prime minister, and the Conservatives are as provincially Eurosceptic as ever. Europe simply cannot count on the British, at least for a while… Silvio Berlusconi’s sexcapades and Spain’s dire economic […]
Here is an eloquent, impassioned account of a first visit to Auschwitz. Not least the stunning bewildering realisation when you arrive at the site that the car-park in front of it is full of … tourist coaches. People in shorts with video cameras, chatting away, perhaps looking forward to moving […]
John Redwood and Denis MacShane have been debating the growing UK total contribution to the EU Budget. So let’s go back to how it was negotiated in 2005. Previous postings (in date order for ease of following the story) are: here here and here In a nutshell, the EU Budget had to grow as […]
Today is the 70th anniversary of one of the greatest crimes in history: the Molotov/Ribbentrop Pact. These two villains scrawled a line through a map of Europe to show who would grab what, then signed it. Here it is in two legendary cartoons by Herblock and Low:
Guardian writer Jonathan Steele dies, and as such goes straight to Hell. He is greeted warmly by the Devil, who praises his life’s work and offers him a choice of bijou accommodation. Jonathan peers uneasily through three windows. In the first cell is Tito, screaming as he twists impaled on a […]
