Which country is in the deeper trouble? This article raises a question. If part of what makes the world go round is a subtle, intangible but real thing called ‘confidence’, is it a good idea to undermine it by looking at the hard facts?
Which country is in the deeper trouble? This article raises a question. If part of what makes the world go round is a subtle, intangible but real thing called ‘confidence’, is it a good idea to undermine it by looking at the hard facts?
Where does decline come from? Denying reality (emphasis added): Paychecks from private business shrank to their smallest share of personal income in U.S. history during the first quarter of this year, a USA TODAY analysis of government data finds. At the same time, government-provided benefits — from Social Security, unemployment insurance, […]
John Redwood has been giving some serious thought to which laws might be swept away by our new government. His list is long – and well worth consideration. I just fear that until somehow a new government can get to grips with the precautionary principle and the related idea of […]
David Cameron ready to veto treaty to shore up euro So says the Indy headline this evening. Hmm. What does the article say? Mrs Merkel has suggested that all European countries need to be willing to surrender more sovereignty to give the EU powers to prevent another Greek-style eurozone crisis. […]
Derek Tonkin is a distinguished former Ambassador (of an older generation than me) who follows closely the situation in Burma. He was brought up in a Foreign Office which prided itself on impeccable standards and good manners. Hence his sensible and courteous letter to David Miliband in March about Burma, […]
Austin Bay mulls over the (as usual) limited options facing South Korea in responding to North Korea’s role in sinking a South Korean ship and killing 46 sailors. This seems a good scheme: Explicit naval tit-for-tat, which exposes and exploits North Korean strategic weakness before a global audience, has more political […]
Here: Further to yesterday’s exposure of the cosy relationship the Parliamentary Under Secretary for Defence Gerald Howarth has with the arms lobbying industry, it seems things get even murkier. Howarth gave Michael Wood of lobbyists Whitehall Advisers (whose clients included BAE Systems and Airbus) free reign of the Parliamentary estate […]
Still, the actual training in Den Haag on Writing with Impact went well, with lots of praise from the participants for my dynamic, eye-opening presentation on good diplomatic writing technique: Witty, clear, practical Lively, entertaining, convincing Funny, memorable, practical Great. I particularly liked the humorous presenting. A lot of information, […]
This morning I staggered home at 0200 hours after a horrid journey back from The Hague, where I had been busy training sassy Dutch officials on the dark arts of Writing with Impact. Thanks to the UNITE union’s antics, my BA flight was cancelled so I had to switch to […]
Catherine Ashton wants a more unified approcach to tackle piracy Well done BBC proof-readers. As of 0903 today.
