I twice have written on this site about one of the most remarkable nights of my FCO career. This posting – my first ever published on this site – described how I single-handedly as FCO Resident Clerk crushed press freedom in Scotland late one night. And then this more recent […]
… things are hotting up. This website supported by some Facebook activity is attacking Daphne Caruana Galizia in a, hem, rather personal way, . And she is hitting back: Your parents’ generation – perhaps even your parents themselves – created a culture of fear and intimidation in this country which […]
Remember Brains from Thunderbirds? Thus: Such is the bountifulness of capitalism that you buy cool glasses like this (albeit alas not quite so pale blue) on Ebay. And (via Instapundit) a lucid explanation of the differences between Nerds, Dweebs, Dorks and Geeks.
Last week I went to a preview of a new film called Storm. Here is a New York Times review which conveys the gist of it. The story centres on a Bosnia war crimes trial at the ICTY. A Bosnian Serb military officier is on trial, but the case against […]
This is excellent. The amazing Bosnian newspaper Dnevni Avaz has a World Scoop. A letter from Prime Minister John Major to FCO Minister of State Douglas Hogg – in Bosnian! Check it out. The letter (facsimile of an official (sic) translation of Major’s letter) is dated 2 May 1993. The […]
Here in the latest Standpoint magazine is an article by Joshua Rozenberg about Mediation and the new, excellent strategic dispute resolution service offered by ADRg Ambassadors. Alas the most interesting sections of the article about ADRg Ambassadors are not included in the online version. So to read them you’ll have […]
Sometimes Mark Steyn surpasses himself. See for example this essay about declining civilisations in general and ours in particular. Angry, insightful and full of vivid language. Examples: Permanence is an illusion — and you would be surprised at how fast mighty nations can be entirely transformed. But, more important, national […]
The energetic campaign to reform the British libel laws is making progress. Yesterday the three largest UK political parties all indicated wilingness to make significant changes. And see Jack Straw in the Guardian: … perhaps most importantly for the media – we’ll be looking at whether to introduce a statutory […]
While I was HM Ambassador in Poland I was accused of improper lobbying of Parliament. (Slavist linguistics note: Polish has lifted the English word lobbying and incorporated it into Polish in a strange form – lobbing) I forget now exactly what the issue was about. Maybe a complicated dispute between the then […]
Reaction from around the world to my unfortunate collision with Malta is flooding in. Such as this link sent from the USA to Maltese proverbs. For example:
