Remember former Ambassador Craig Murray’s problems in getting a publisher for his new book because it might attract a heavy libel writ? He is pressing on by publishing it on/via the Internet. Let the legal fun and games begin.
Remember former Ambassador Craig Murray’s problems in getting a publisher for his new book because it might attract a heavy libel writ? He is pressing on by publishing it on/via the Internet. Let the legal fun and games begin.
Any audience for a speech quickly works out what it has to face. Boring or Interesting? Routine or Inspiring? Getting off to a good start is essential, as top US speech-writer John Shosky explains in the latest Total Politics: Audiences decide if they like you, and if you are a person […]
The BBC website is asking weird questions: How can the future of oil prices be stabilised? What are the alternatives? Does the problem lie with consumers or providers? What is the ‘problem’ here? What is the point of ‘stabilising’ the price of anything? A price is a piece of information […]
Here is a letter I am planning to send to a competent newspaper Agony Aunt, if I can find one. I am asking for your advice. I believe that the heart of both moral and practical wellbeing lies in defining a close, evident link between good behaviour and good outcomes, […]
The Serbian website Pescanik (‘Hourglass’) has lots of lively and nicely turned work available in both Serbian and English. Try this piece on a profound local disposition to oppose change and modernity by romanticising primitivism: Whenever you find yourself short on argument, it comes in handy to call your opponent, who is […]
A significant UK court ruling allows agreements reached during marriage on the disposal of assets in the case of divorce to be legally binding. But not agreements reached before marriage. This reads oddly: Legal experts say the important ruling will lead to many couples deciding how to settle their financial […]
Here is a brisk Samizdata posting about our current financial woes: A lot of people in the financial industry are trying to figure out the individual costs to them of the $50 billion Bernard Madoff hedge fund fraud. The allegation is that Mr Madoff operated a "Ponzi scheme" scam wherby […]
I am pressing on through The Exception, by Christian Jungersen. This is a terrific novel. It is set in a small Danish NGO of experts on war crimes. The team there, almost all women, start falling out when some threatening emails arrive. The ensuing suspicions and intrigue are described in a gripping […]
The Turkey/Armenia relationship still grapples with the scale and definition of the huge numbers of killings of Armenians in 1915. A new and bold initiative in Turkey aims at collecting signatures of apology, albeit not using the word ‘genocide’. Meanwhile the Polish media have picked up on work done by […]
Insofar as this Blogoir has a Theme and Point, it is that we keep reminding ourselves that Decisions have Consequences. Some consequences are planned and desirable. Others are unplanned/unexpected/undesirable, not least because the consequences of various decisions taken independently in practice get tangled up together and make an even worse […]
