I have not posted here until now a link to my Telegraph piece about the Polish elections that ended up giving the Law and Justice Party an overall majority – the first time that this has happened since communism ended. Here it is. Complete with a wily reference to one of […]
My latest piece for DIPLOMAT magazine, on the EU and its refugee/migrant crisis: Who exactly is a citizen of state X? And what rights (if any) does a person who is not a citizen of state X have (a) to enter state X and (b) to stay there? The answer? […]
Thoughts by me from 2010 that are no longer up on the Internet. They read quite well now. Are ‘capitalism’ and free choices inherently moral or immoral? That debate drones on. We now are forced to distinguish between ‘justice’ and ‘social justice’, where the latter is said to trump the […]
Responding to my piece pondering the calamitous performance of Ed Miliband, long-time reader Nigel Sedgwick offers some excellent points on electoral reform in the UK. Posted previously as a comment, but worth looking at properly: Charles writes: “Here in the United Kingdom our “first past the post” voting system produces […]
In case you have been missing me, I have been on the road. First at this year’s Dubrovnik Diplomatic Forum in Croatia. Then back at IAEA (in Vienna) on Leadership Skills. Dubrovnik is of course splendid, if not quite as affordable as it used to be. As for the Forum, the event […]
On Sunday Poland votes in the second round of the 2015 presidential elections, with current president Bronislaw Komorowski fighting to fend off the challenge of a younger Andrzej Duda. My account of the first round is at Poland presidential elections 2015. On Sunday evening I’ll be at the excellent Topolski Bar […]
++ UPDATE ++ Haha never believe opinion polls. According to the exit polls Duda has won the first round (35% or so) with Komorowski failing into second place (32%). Kukiz scored a mighty 20%. A huge battle will ensue for the second round run-off in two weeks’ time… * * […]
Here is my piece over at PunditWire and Commentator describing a draft leaked keynote speech by Vladimir Putin in which he makes a decisive break with Soviet-era iconography and paranoia in favour of basic decency: Traditionally we have taken the Great Patriotic War as starting in June 1941 when Hitler […]
If you are in London on Tuesday and sick of the UK general elections, have fun thinking about Poland’s Presidential elections instead. You can watch the Polish Ambassador Witold Sobkow and me in discussion with Liam Halligan on the always interesting subject of Poland’s transition from communism to what it is now. […]
The UK general election takes place soon. In years gone by I used to follow every twist and turn of the elections process. Now? Not so much. Some sort of strange fragmentation is happening, so that our trusty mainly two-party system erodes into something that might well be more ‘democratic’ […]
