This article by Bruno Waterfield and the leaked EU report about the way the No campaign successfully mobilised public opinion via the Internet to bring Ireland reject the Lisbon Treaty are fascinating on many levels. Note especially the Euro-lamenting that traditional media outlets are facing many new forms of competition and therefore […]
That fellow Spengler sure has a way with words: Senator Barack Obama’s acceptance speech last week seemed vastly different from the stands of this city’s Invesco Stadium than it did to the 40 million who saw it on television. Melancholy hung like think smog over the reserved seats where I […]
Aaaargh. Reckless carbon use on Earth is now having worrying ramifications at the heart of solar system, viz the Sun. Please governments. Tax us higher to pay for all those schemes to deal with these problems, otherwise all is lost. One thing is utterly clear. The Earth is set to […]
The Times has two noteworthy pieces on Georgia and its ramifications today. Bronwen Maddox weighs in on the EU’s defiant chihuahua-like stance: … even though the EU should rightly settle for the lowest common denominator on such important questions of its own identity, the proposals were weak beyond parody. “The Union […]
The world takes another step towards the Internet Cloud as Google launches its new browser Google Chrome. We, the vast mass of mere users, have almost no idea of what is happening to deliver these miracles of networked cleverness. Here (via Charles Johnson) is as simple an explanation as we might hope […]
Jaded as you must be by my extensive offerings on the Kosovo/Georgia/Russia saga, you might care to look at the related (and vigorous) thoughts of three other former FCO Ambassadorial colleagues: Sir Ivor Roberts: How can the West talk of the need to maintain an independent state’s territorial integrity and to refuse […]
What will happen when this strong, self made woman who exploded on the Alaska scene by taking on and defeating the good old boy network in Alaska stands in front of the citizens of the United States and says she has done this all while caring for and nurturing 4 […]
Remember Bill Ayers? He’s back. And not everyone is happy about it, trying to bully the issue off the US airways. Those horrid right-wing Republican smears! Trying to link Obama to a respectable, nay mainstream figure in the progressive camp. Whatever next? Some good advice to the Obama team.
Stories of stunning human achievements are always inspiring. But, facile as we usually are, we tend to dwell on ‘immediate’ visible triumphs in eg sport or the arts, and to ignore the mind-boggling successes of engineers and scientists. So have a look at this fine article from 2005 to help […]
I have opined about the Rules purporting to lay down what diplomats can and can’t say once they leave the FCO. See eg here. Now my former colleage Sir Edward Clay has reiterated his concerns about the FCO Rules: The rule requires former diplomats to consult about any proposed public […]
