If the EU is intended to be a sort of new über-country, getting rid of all that horrid provincial national feeling in favour of a new Euro-togetherness, it makes sense for the European Commission to take little interest in the fate of national soccer teams even if others do. Hence […]
We had the privilege last week of joining a small private dinner in London in honour of Baroness Thatcher. I took the opportunity to congratulate her on her unswerving insistence on Honest Money. See eg this speech in 1984: Today we have the lowest rate of inflation since the 1960s. […]
Every now and again you read a review where the writer has been given the space to explain in quite some detail and with unrelenting passion why a book or film gets it utterly wrong or right. Take this review of The Reader. I get the definite impression that Frederic […]
I liked Clare Short when I first met her in Bosnia a couple of years later. Her febrile anti-Americanism aside, she was tough-minded, down-to-earth and perspicacious on Bosnian issues. Why did someone as smart as Clare Short get that letter to the Zimbabwe government so wrong? Let’s look at the context. […]
Chavez seizes rice processing factories. Mugabe seizes more farms. In the UK we have the Rule of Law, so we are safe from this sort of thing. Wrong! Behold, the Chavez/Mugabe/Brown doctrine: What is unacceptable to me won’t be accepted: "The prime minister has said that it is not acceptable and […]
Lo! Here comes the Incredible Governmentuan: Bailoutman started out as a huge staggering behemoth and has inflated from there. Once upon a time he was as a meek, mild-mannered trillionaire, but a mere five months later he was a meek, mild-mannered multi-trillionaire. If you find it hard to keep track of […]
Warming to my theme on how the West probably has made the Zimbabwe problem worse, I think that Clare Short letter in 1997 to Minister Kumbirai Kangai MP deserves a close look from the point of view of professional civil service technique. So, here goes. George Foulkes has reported to […]
In Zimbabwe the Africanist tendency led by Robert Mugabe is making one last heave to destroy ‘white farmers’. The so-called power-sharing deal which is meant to start to pull Zimbabwe out of its crisis leaves the Agriculture Ministry in Mugabe’s hands. So, out they go: At the meeting in Chegutu, […]
A Spent Copper offers this thought on my posting below about Fake Charities: May I nominate ACPO (Association of Chief Police Officers) for such exposure Charles? The Government like to use them to float their ideas for policy, and they are extensively publicly funded, but they have changed their legal […]
Do you remember Grantrepreneurs and GONGOs? Organisations which profess to be independent but in fact are getting large amounts of taxpayers money, with little if any real accountability? Thus: My idea. Any so-called non-governmental organisation which receives either (a) more than 10% of its total income from government or other […]
