Over at Edge is a must-read piece giving many expert but readable examples of where science had the wrong answers but stuck to them for a long time. The explanations cast light on many other aspects of knowledge and learning. See eg leading computer scientist Roger Schank describing how another […]
Back from giving further diplomatic mediation skills training in Brussels to EU officials. Unlike the FCO, the EU’s nascent foreign policy machine dimly sees the point of understanding how to get better outcomes by using smart mediation techniques. So, I duly help deliver the superb training they need. In the margins I […]
Last week I gave evidence to the All-Party Parliamentary Group (APPG) on Foreign Affairs led by Baroness Nicholson of Winterbourne. This APPG has been set up this year in part because the House of Lords does not have a Foreign Affairs Committee, yet contains numerous people with considerable expertise in […]
A reader has sent me this trenchant message about the state of affairs in Slovenia concerning justice for the victims of communist atrocities: Your article "Regret is not enough in Slovenian tragedy" is spot on as is your analysis of the political situation in the Central European country of Slovenia […]
Public speaking expert Max Atkinson wages his vigorous war against PowerPoint in general and especially when used on BBC TV news programmes. Here, for example, he describes how he presented some unsuspecting diners with a clip from a BBC News programme and then asked them how much they remembered: It […]
Remember the excellent book Parting Shots, in which valedictory despatches by all sorts of former British ambassadors are published for your enjoyment and edification? Here the BBC looks at some of them who just got things wrong. Former Foreign Secretary Douglas Hurd reviews it in the Spectator and is unimpressed with the […]
Well turned piece by Simon Heffer in the Telegraph this morning. He’s been talking to one of ‘one of our most intelligent diplomats’ (not me – I am an intelligent ex-diplomat haha) about the Eurozone: On a shimmering day last June, I was talking to one of our most intelligent […]
You heard it at TEDxKrakow first. Now even top EU people are saying it: 16 November 2010 Last updated at 11:38 Eurozone facing ‘survival crisis’ The European Union is in a "survival crisis" over eurozone debt problems, the EU Council president has warned. Speaking hours before eurozone ministers meet to […]
The second gripping instalment of my analysis of the EU Budget is here: In a few months’ time, the familiar weary battle will unfold in Brussels as the next Financial Perspective negotiations get under way. The Commission, cheered on by the profligate European Parliament, will announce an indicative budget increase […]
Have a look at this example of a superb presentation about big picture global and other economic trends, by Niall Ferguson. It’s all very well going on about the annoying features of PowerPoint, many of which are indeed annoying. But how could the wealth of insight and information contained in […]
