Simon Heffer takes a polemical pot-shot at David Cameron, accusing him of succumbing to socialism in his recent Davos speech: … one of the most shallow speeches by a supposedly serious politician that I have ever read. It should also terrify anyone who might feel he or she should vote […]
Lots of media coverage today of a UK High Court ruling against release of US-originating papers held by the British Government which might show evidence of torture of a British resident in US custody. As usual when legal matters are reported, it is not easy to work out precisely what […]
A brisk view from Mark Steyn on how our aging self-important rock stars are very protocol-obsessive: A decade or so back, Sting had to issue a formal apology because at one of his big save-the-rainforest banquets at his country pile he committed the ghastly social faux pas of seating Jools Holland […]
When you are trying to sort out failing companies, is it smart to strive to make sure the best people won’t want to work there? Surely if ever there was a time for performance-linked reward schemes, this is it? An executive who leads a company out of a deep hole and […]
Interesting new policy initiatives from the Conservatives on how to use IT to improve government. Yet… I hanker after Something More from our leaders. It’s all so prosaic. Worthy indeed. Yet a touch uninspiring? Why not bring in some Russian-style politics to liven things up a bit and make political campaigning up and down […]
Googling for some figures on the depths of winters in Siberia, I found this 1998 scientific research: Cold related mortalities and protection against cold in Yakutsk, eastern Siberia: observation and interview study And the Conclusion after all that learned analysis? A shocker: People in Yakutsk wore very warm clothing, and in […]
More high-pitched noise on the status or not in the Catholic Church of Bishop Richard Williamson, with Chancellor Merkel ploughing in: "This is not just a matter, in my opinion, for the Christian, Catholic and Jewish communities in Germany but the Pope and the Vatican should clarify unambiguously that there […]
Back to earth with a bump. Here is a startling puff-piece for radical communism in the Independent. It is all about a neo-Trotskyist postman, one Olivier Besancenot, who it is claimed ‘defies the Trotskyist stereotype’ by having short hair and wearing well-fitting jeans and a black or white T-shirt. His […]
Now and again you see something that lifts the standard for us all. Here is a superb analysis by Jason Lee Steorts at NRO of the foreign policy process and Iraq – looked at through the eyes of a poker player – which gives us numerous insights into how things work […]
So, as expected, good money drives out bad at last in benighted Zimbabwe. The authorities have started to allow people to trade in real money and not scraps of paper covered in zeroes. Or, for now, not covered in zeroes. I had an interesting discussion this afternoon with someone writing a […]
