Over at Commentator I gallop through some of the issues arising from the splitting-up of countries, drawing on the examples of the collapse of the USSR and SFRY, and seeing how far they apply to Scotland. The division of Czechoslovakia into two units might well be more relevant, as a commenter fairly […]
My piece over at Telegraph Blogs about language teaching and learning in UK schools has attracted 226 comments so far. First, an apology to Will Hutton. My piece said that Hutton’s Guardian article on this subject did not make clear that learning languages is hard work. Openmind2010 points out that […]
Here’s my latest LSE book review, on a new book by Charlie Beckett with James Ball describing the rise and fall of Wikileaks: One of the key advantages of WikiLeaks as seen by its avowedly radical ‘hacktivist’ creators led (loosely speaking) by Julian Assange is that it subverts all existing […]
Frugaldad has sent me this interesting infographic. As the proud but broke owner of ever more Apple products, I share it with you: Source: https://frugaldad.com
Just spotted that funny things have been happening to my attempts to make blog postings – my Syria piece appeared three times. Two now deleted. Apologies. It all stems from trying to get things here posted nicely AND sent to Twitter at the same time. #fail
Will Hutton’s recent misleading piece in the Guardian about the decline in language learning in UK skills needed some serious demolition. And here it is, by me over at Telegraphs Blogs: … in my experience both at school and later at the late FCO Language Centre, a big part of the […]
Remember my piece almost a year ago describing smart diplomatic options for Doing Something about Libya? Here it is, and none the worse for wear: You draw a noisy stick across the bars of the FCO/State Department cage to rouse the bemused and sulky inmates, and demand ideas for action. What might they […]
Small ‘unofficial’ referendum in northern Kosovo – not many dead. In case you haven’t noticed, the Serb population of northern Kosovo have set up and run their own referendum on whether to accept rule by the institutions of Kosovo. The answer, to no-one’s surprise: No! As the EU knows to […]
The winner of the the 2012 ICC Mediation Competition in Paris was South Texas College of Law. Hurrah. I was over in Paris for the Preliminary Rounds earlier this week. This is an excellent opportunity for students around the world to work up their negotiating skills in something a bit […]
Long time no see. Up in deepest Leeds, on a combination of family and other business. The Queen’s Hotel does fine cheap deals via LateRooms and has a very solid fish and chips.
