The goings-on in and around North Korea and its nuclear ambitions takes us back to our old friend Negotiation. See eg this early piece I wrote in April last year about Power and Purpose: Part of getting what you want is projecting a sense of Power and Purpose, so that when […]
The claim by the defence of Radovan Karadzic that he had a deal with Richard Holbrooke ("This is it – leave public and political life in Republika Srpska and you won’t have to go to the Hague." "OK…") is back in the news again. Back in mid-1996, only a few months […]
Is here. It links to Brian Barder arguing against the very idea of any UK referendum on the Lisbon Treaty, and being struck that even many Labour List readers do not agree with him (Note: Barder long sentence advisory warning) Over on the always interesting Labour List blog, this post (reproduced […]
I previously posted on one way in which our government decides that many people should be killed for the Greater Good. This essentially philosophical question – how to measure Costs v Benefits of policy – is what government is all about. Especially when it comes to grand scale environmental policy. Which counts the […]
An interesting article in the Guardian about the use of hi-tech tracing technology to help put pressure on Uzbekistan to stop forced child labour in the vast Uzkek post-Soviet cotton fields: "We became aware of real problems in Uzbekistan," said Alan Wragg, Tesco’s clothing technical director. "Government-organised forced child labour […]
Via a couple of Dizzy postings about Nadine Dorries and her blog (being taken down), I stumble via some acrimonious comments into the jungle of claims and counter-claims involving various leading British bloggers (including Iain Dale, Guido and Tim Ireland) feuding with each other. When such online rows start, they typically mutate […]
Here is a fascinating article about the evolution of legal standards in tackling piracy several hundred years ago: Out of this unfolding of events emerged the Act for the More Effectual Suppression of Piracy, initially introduced by parliament in 1700. This act permitted colonial governments to try and execute pirates […]
Well done the Internet in general and Wrinkled Weasel in particular for bringing to wider attention the expression drooling ochlocracy. It turns out that it means … us! In the context of the collective national eyebrow-raising on the subject of MPs’ expenses. William Wordsworth too chips in: ‘Twas in truth […]
Craig Murray is included on Brian Micklethwait’s list of UK libertarian bloggers and, ingrate that he is, starts moaning about the list – emphasis added: In the vast majority of cases, libertarian here plainly means "right wing conservative" or "neo-con" … The peculiar thing is, that these neo-con "Libertarians" have, by […]
My birthday today. Hurrah. 22 May does not have too many really famous people born on it. But two people (other than myself) stand out. Ted Kaczynski, Unibomber (22 May 1942). And Sir Arthur Conan Doyle (22 May 1859). Sir Arthur would be 150 today. Here is an account of […]
