Alert readers of this Blog will have spotted that there is a new link along the top, namely to an essay I have written about Amazon Space. This piece is an attempt to pull together various themes of international politics and the impact thereon of surging IT-driven integration: The world has […]
You have to doff the cap to some of the Guardian’s leading columnists. They come out day after day, whirling their delicate arms in a pugnacious defiant way, only to be knocked flat on to the floor by Tim Worstall: As we’re all surveying the rubble we’re agreeing that the root […]
What makes for brilliant writing, in English at least? A subtle combination of perhaps three big things. Clarity, Energy and Wisdom. Clarity of message, combined with clarity in delivering it. Energy in both thought and language. Wisdom in cutting through the infinite hubbub of facts and arguments out there and looking bluntly at things that […]
Is here, the Audacity of Hazel edition in honour of H Blears MP and her demented ginger weeble views on blogging.
I belatedly add a word on the tragic utterances by Hazel Blears MP on the quality of public life and blogging: But mostly, political blogs are written by people with a disdain for the political system and politicians, who see their function as unearthing scandals, conspiracies and perceived hypocrisy. I […]
Fascinated by the fascinating subject of diplomatic memoirs? Check out a magnificent article in the latest edition of Diplomat magazine: At their worst, diplomatic memoirs offer cliché piled on cliché, the wordily pompous intertwined with the coy, the self-important and the banal. Hardened professionals tiptoe quickly for the exit when they stumble […]
One of the best things about writing a blog is that like an exotic plant it somehow grows in strange directions and shapes and thereby introduces you to all sorts of new people round the planet. Such as someone who saw my post on PM Qualities and posted a positive comment, Andrew Cooper. Check […]
A reader responds to the Mr Incredible example in my piece about how far one is prepared to inflict – and take – pain in a vital negotiation: Well yes, but that was a crucial moment, because it showed Mirage that this was not simply a contest of strength. It allowed her […]
The extra quality the USA brings to politics as to everything else is Motivation. That sense of mobilising can-do energy backed by wit and clarity. Here is Arnold Schwarzenegger, in lively and effective form ("Obama needs some meat on his ideas"). Hard to imagine a similarly feisty speech by a UK politician; […]
Here is a neatly turned speech in Boston by the British Ambassador to the UN, Sir John Sawers, marking UN Day. He recalls how Artur Rubinstein defiantly played the Polish anthem back in 1945 to show his contempt for the exclusion of a democratic Poland at the establishment of the UN. And […]
