Opinion / The Law and Legal Issues

Outing Anonymous Bloggers

Here is David Allen Green aka Jack of Kent on the subtle subject of when if at all it is right to ‘out’ anonymous bloggers. DAG of course played a leading and clever role in exposing the mendacity of Johann Hari, and has followed that up by helping show how the […]

Continue Reading

EU/China Negotiations

Many countries are unhappy about the EU’s carbon tax on airlines. China has now blocked important sales of Airbus aircraft to Chinese companies. Ouch! But this struck my eye in the BBC report: Mr Gallois said opposition by Beijing could affect the sales of at least two dozen long-haul A330 […]

Continue Reading

Negotiating with Pirates: Outlandish Clarity

One of the many best things about writing this blog is that people I hardly know or may not have ever met get in touch in all sorts of ways. Thus. Remember my piece a while back about the startling and startlingly bad film Battle of Warsaw 1920? A reader today […]

Continue Reading

Insofar, Inasmuch

My piece over at Telegraph Blogs about language teaching and learning in UK schools has attracted 226 comments so far. First, an apology to Will Hutton. My piece said that Hutton’s Guardian article on this subject did not make clear that learning languages is hard work. Openmind2010 points out that […]

Continue Reading

Kosovo Serbs Vote; Who Decides?

Small ‘unofficial’ referendum in northern Kosovo – not many dead. In case you haven’t noticed, the Serb population of northern Kosovo have set up and run their own referendum on whether to accept rule by the institutions of Kosovo. The answer, to no-one’s surprise: No! As the EU knows to […]

Continue Reading

Syria: What Is To Be Done?

Remember my piece almost a year ago describing smart diplomatic options for Doing Something about Libya? Here it is, and none the worse for wear: You draw a noisy stick across the bars of the FCO/State Department cage to rouse the bemused and sulky inmates, and demand ideas for action. What might they […]

Continue Reading

EU Summit – What Next?

My piece about the latest Summit over at Daily Telegraph blogs is up, prompting the usual vivid comments from Daily Telegraph readers: This piece by Crawford simply comes across as Civil Service gobbeldy-gook and demonstrates that he’s no understanding of any of this. Is that why the Civil Service seem to […]

Continue Reading

Libya and MI6 (again): Sir Mark Allen

Craig Murray and I have a fleeting moment of agreement, rather like ships sailing in opposite directions who pass and exchange friendly waves. He commented on my earlier piece about Libya and MI6, responding to another reader: Your second point rests on the premiss that if government ministers approved something, […]

Continue Reading

All You Need is Trust – the 2012 Edelman Survey

The other day we had the pleasure of meeting senior colleagues at Edelman London, part of the global team who prepare the annual Edelman Trust Barometer. The online survey aims explicitly at educated people round the world who follow current affairs. This year’s survey concluded that trust in governments had suffered […]

Continue Reading

Denis MacEoin Writes to an Archbishop

A reader kindly points me in the direction of a blog written by Denis MacEoin which aims to portray Israel in a fair (and therefore favourable) light. Not least in this powerful letter he has sent to the Roman Catholic Archbishop of Westminster, which offers the worthy prelate some food […]

Continue Reading
Newer EntriesOlder Entries