My long-awaited analysis of how the EU Budget really works is now being posted by Conservative Home, in two gripping episodes. The first one has appeared this morning – here. The second should appear tomorrow. Note especially the analysis of the famous British Rebate: a) It is the wonderful Thatcherite […]
A super, sharp little analysis by Frank Furedi of the way the state appropriates responsibilities and then redistributes them, wrecking almost every value we ought to hold dear in the process. Look at this devastating passage:: … the public has become a project, a project of inclusion. New Labour loved having […]
Conservative Home have run an unusually fatuous article by one Max Wind-Cowie of Demos, where he works on the Progressive Conservatism Project. He even has the hair to match. M W-C suggests that UK diplomacy is ailing because we do not apply the American method of appointing friends of senior […]
Look at the sheer design style of this place, New York’s disused City Hall subway station.
Is hosted by a Very British dude Who has a brisk line in literary criticism: Philobiblon tries to be more upbeat by reviewing "Rethinking Contemporary Feminist Politics" by Jonathan Dean which can be yours for £54 on Amazon. Those long winter evenings will just fly by. What caught my eye […]
My talk at TEDxKrakow contained one throw-away observation which raised warm applause from the massed Polish audience. I said that I had studied various languages. Polish is the only one which teaches you the verb ‘to complain’ – narzekać – as one of the VERY FIRST VERBS YOU LEARN. This subsequently led to […]
Good question. But it will happen. Poland one day will fade once and for all from the map of Europe (as will the UK and Germany) and give way to Something Else. Jan Klosowski looks closely at the options (in Polish, but Google translator gets you the gist).
Via Twitter I find that somehow I have been linked to the website Calculated Presentations, a source of good if breathless public speaking encouragement seemingly aimed at people who feel nervous about pronouncing in front of others. It’s run by Janice Tomich, who I suspect has some Balkan DNA coursing through […]
More haggling over the 2011 EU Budget. Key point to remember. If there is no agreement in December, the EU 2011 budget stays at the level of the 2010 budget. Hurrah? Yes and no. Since money has been committed to various EU schemes during this 2005/13 Financial Perspective period, some […]
For a notable example of a female Guardian writer with bad glasses delivering a piece of bewildering strangeness and being dumped on by dozens of readers, go no further than this clueless piece about the alleged Tyranny of Marriage by one Lara Pawson: I want to divorce the man I love […]
