Just when you were thinking that I am a lone voice among former British diplomats lamenting the plummet in intellectual coherence and standards within the New Labour FCO, here is another one. He has sprung into action after seeing this strange article by David Miliband in the New Statesman in which […]
Guido rightly lambasts the Fabian Society for their erstwhile adoration of the pseudo-science of Eugenics – the corrupt ideology beloved by snooty middle class intellectuals which was a sort of cross-breed of über-Darwinianism with Nietzschean/Germanic ideas of Supremacy. See also the merciless analysis of this odious ‘progressive’ doctrine and its highbrow supporters […]
Leading communications expert Max Atkinson points up the value of adding memorable or lively touches in a speech, eg by finding a noteworthy link to past events: … occasionally a quick search can yield a fantastic dividend. When the Challenger shuttle disaster prompted Ronald Reagan to scrap his 1986 state […]
As the UK general election hoves into view, here’s a free tip to would-be MPs. Do not sit in the warm and make disobliging remarks about a rival candidate who is outside in the cold, busy shaking hands with voters. The more so if you seem to disparage the area’s iconic […]
Today a belated Seasons Greetings card made it to my door. It came from ‘all at Binani House’. It had been addressed to me at the Britsh Embassy in Belgrade. To judge by the envelope it indeed reached the Embassy and was processed in Security (zdravo Zorane!) then forwarded back […]
I have been asked by the FCO to give a talk there later in January to a group of foreign visitors about Using Democracy for Peace. Or maybe it was Using Peace for Democracy. I forget. One or the other. As always the Balkans is/are a laboratory for cutting-edge research […]
Peggy Noonan is a bit haughty. But she writes a handy op-ed, such as this one on President Obama becoming disonnected: The real story is that his rhetorical and iconic detachment are harped on because they reflect a deeper disconnect, the truly problematic one, and that is over policy. It […]
Jonah Goldberg in a jovial frame of mind as Scott Brown makes the Massachusettes (sic) Democrats nervous: The Democratic party is panicking like brothel patrons with the cops at the door. They’re dropping shock troops of muckety-mucks, hacks, spinners, and door-knockers into Boston like Rangers into Normandy.Meanwhile, the liberal press […]
Welcome Iain Dale readers I was helping someone the other day with some well-chosen words for a senior private occasion of some 100 people. The task? Suggesting ideas for the seemingly simple task of opening the proceedings and introducing the main speaker(s). Of course … not so simple. The words […]
A reader takes issue with me on my analysis of Georgian Chess Moves: All these moves and counter moves are more or less based on the stupid theories inside the textbooks of International Relations and Political Science. There is no deep knowledge in these textbooks, just insipid informations and postulates. […]
