Poland for many decades was carved up between the Tsarist Empire, the Austro-Hungarian Empire and the Prussian Empire. How have the very different political and social cultures of those three areas affected Polish politics today? Here is an analysis that purports to show that current political attitudes among Poland’s people […]
A most elegant article by John Jeremiah Sullivan about consciousness in both humans and animals, describing how over many centuries human views on this subject have changed as we have come to know more: Entomologists mastered the dance code of the bees and spoke it to them, using a tiny […]
Back from sharing with the Croatian Diplomatic Academy some training thoughts on Lobbying and Negotiating in the European Union. With the Cyprus drama helpfully unfolding before our startled eyes. These fiendishly complex financial/banking negotiations are impossible for normal people to follow, although anyone following my Twitter feed will have seen […]
Those readers who have a significant pond may have problems with extracting voluminous pond-weeds. We today were advised on how best to clear them. Tie a rope securely to a metal rake, then heave the rake out into the middle of the pond. Wait until the sharp end sinks as […]
This week marks the 10th anniversary of the murder of Serbian Prime Minister Zoran Djindjic. Here is the piece I wrote on the 8th anniversary. It mentions the proliferation of insane Serbian conspiracy theories somehow hinting that I was linked to the assassination and/or lobbied for the then Deputy Prime […]
Just back from this year’s Churchill Public Speaking Competition for schools at glorious Blenheim Palace. The format is interesting – and oddly difficult. Each school has a Chairperson, Speaker and Questioner. Within a timeframe of some ten minutes the Chair has to introduce the school and the team, then hand […]
It’s not usual that the world gets a chance to see almost live the words of a judge handing down a sentence. Yet today’s sentencing of Chris Huhne and Vicky Pryce gave us that rare chance. Here are the words of Sweeney J. And powerful words they are too. When […]
One recurring theme of this website is Consequences, and where they come from. My main conclusion after scrutinising the human race for some 50 years is that this is the hardest of all ideas to understand: (i) that, yes, there was a time when what you see around you did […]
Another piece by me at PunditWire that looks at a magnificent example of using language to demonstrate that ‘really’ the issue is about something else. Not a disaster. But the speaker’s gloriously moral and meritorious response to it: I promised both the government and the NHS that I would see […]
Preparations chez Crawford are intensifying for next week’s fine Churchill Public Speaking Project event at Blenheim Palace at which schools compete to deliver powerful presentations on a number of possible themes. Here’s the list of subjects. Events like this help motivate children (and, ahem, their parents) to look at the […]
