I sat in this evening on a lively discussion at the Adam Smith Institute on Politics and the Blog. The lead speakers were Guido and John Redwood – a contrast in style and substance. Among those I recognised with my ebbing eyesight were Brian Micklethwait, Tim Worstall, Dr Helen Szamuely and […]
Here is the mighty Richard Posner looking at some Big Picture economic issues. A good passage about ‘rational’ descision-making: If rationality means omniscience, then it is indeed an unsound premise for economic reasoning. If it means reasoning unaffected by emotion, then it misunderstands emotion. The word "emotional" has overtones of […]
You are no doubt wondering what a condemned man might look like after being tied to a stake then shot at by a few hundred people with machine guns. The answer? Not much left except a dark red bloody splodge and a strong smell of singed meat. With that thought […]
I have too many books. I came from a schoolteacher family which piled up books and never gave any away. If we wanted a book, it was bought. So, a lot of books. Mostly read at least once. Very few read more than once. Some barely skimmed. They take up space […]
Is here, hosted by Trixy at Is there more to life than shoes? A question which goes unanswered, at least explicitly. It links inter alia to the most important posting former Ambassador Craig Murray has ever posted, even if he says so himself. The subject is Torture and what he says […]
Max Atkinson has picked up my comment as posted on his site about what makes a speech memorable and had a look at the famous speech by Sir Geoffrey Howe seen as a pivotal moment in the events which led to Mrs Thatcher’s resignation as Prime Minister. He asked if […]
Nick Cohen puts a grammatically challenged question: Who (sic) would you rather trust – the BBC or a blogger? Back in about 1992 I was moved for the first time ever to write a letter to the BBC to complain about a news-clip from South Africa (where I had just […]
Iain Dale has made it to the Orwell Prize shortlist. Here is a tirade against this development: Everywhere you turn there he is doling out another gob of cliche with all the care of a prison kitchen cook slapping down a ladleful of mashed potato on a lag’s tray. An […]
Here is a hard-hitting analysis of what is indeed a strange and nasty anti-Israel cartoon by a ‘fiery’ Australia cartoonist, picked up in various newspapers in the USA which (perhaps) ought to know better. This might be said to be a first-class Fisking of a cartoon – taking each element of […]
Dan Hannan MEP has delivered a blow to Prime Minister Gordon Brown in a terse but sharp address in the European Parliament which has been picked up on YouTube and seen by hundreds of thousands of people: Dan is well on the libertarian end of the political spectrum in the UK, so it […]
