Jonah Goldberg in a jovial frame of mind as Scott Brown makes the Massachusettes (sic) Democrats nervous: The Democratic party is panicking like brothel patrons with the cops at the door. They’re dropping shock troops of muckety-mucks, hacks, spinners, and door-knockers into Boston like Rangers into Normandy.Meanwhile, the liberal press […]
Peggy Noonan is a bit haughty. But she writes a handy op-ed, such as this one on President Obama becoming disonnected: The real story is that his rhetorical and iconic detachment are harped on because they reflect a deeper disconnect, the truly problematic one, and that is over policy. It […]
I have been asked by the FCO to give a talk there later in January to a group of foreign visitors about Using Democracy for Peace. Or maybe it was Using Peace for Democracy. I forget. One or the other. As always the Balkans is/are a laboratory for cutting-edge research […]
An ever-alert reader moves on from the wonders of Ask Imam to a British website for what I take to be Fairly Militant Muslims, notably this analysis of the difference between a lion and a lioness: What would a lion without a mane look like? That’s right, it would look […]
Back in Moscow in 1994 or thereabouts I asked a top Russian foreign policy pundit what would happen to Ukraine, then languishing in a deacying post-communist stupor. "We’ll just buy it," came the sardonic reply. But what about less obvious places, such as Nauru, which has just recognised Abkhazia and […]
We all have lots of questions, often about our own most detailed bodily processes: And they sure need answering. Luckily for us South Africa’s Mufti Ebrahim Desai is our online fatwa resource and raring to go. Especially on everything (and I mean everything) of interest to Women and their religious requirements. Hmm.
Derek Tonkin, former British Ambassador to Thailand, Vietnam and Laos, knows a few things about that part of the world. Hence it is good to see him helping with this lively site, Network Myanmar. See for example this page with a long list of handy links to articles about Myanmar […]
The usual howls of outrage against bank bonuses, especially against those paid out by banks supported by the taxpayer in the UK and USA. But, duh: Banks with government guarantees take the biggest risks, make the most money, and pay the highest bonuses! Simple way to stop all this? Try capitalism. […]
Here is the as yet unofficial transcript of part of Alastair Campbell’s session with the Chilcot Inquiry. Quick work to get it up so fast. Others have dumped on the performance of this New Labour eel yesterday. See Paul Waugh describing how my old boss Rod Lyne did the business: Campbell […]
A group of former senior British diplomats (self included) have come together to set up a new top-end international strategic advice and dispute resolution/dispute management service: ADRg Ambassadors. Here is the website, just launched. Check it out, including the excellent and impressive list of policy areas and languages the team […]
