The pattern is familiar. An insurrection breaks out in an unstable State, subject to indifferent government. It starts with street protests. The West back the protesters without taking account of the underlying fault lines of ethnicity, religious group, cultural variation and racial origin. It sees the mob as heroes because they make western sounding noises, […]
This is a moment when the West has to upgrade its diplomacy to a much more sophisticated and flexible model than the gung ho shambles post 9/11. The world is no longer a place of goodies and baddies, nor is it one of independent interests. It is a spider’s web of interlocking and related interests, […]
This Blog, like very many people across the United Kingdom and the Republic of Ireland, is fed up with confected political crises got up by Unionist politicians and the latest row about immunity letters is typical. Without going into the details of the latest hullabaloo, it is worth getting at the core issue. In the […]
Let nobody in the West fool themselves that what is happening in the Ukraine is a good idea. A legitimate democratic government favoured by half the population has been overthrown by street protestors from the half who did not like it. The fact the regime of the ousted president was corrupt, had tinkered with the […]
Russia’s premier Dmitry Medvedev spoke some truth when he said that the new authorities in the Ukraine lacked legitimacy and had achieved power through an armed mutiny. These are not words western diplomats would use to describe what has happened, but nevertheless a legitimate government, albeit heavy handed and unpopular, having been properly elected in […]
Although the performance of the Tories in bye elections is awful and they look set for a drubbing in both the upcoming local and European elections, George Osborne is at last beginning to stand out as a Chancellor who knows what he is doing and is sure of his grip. Readers will know that this […]
As this Blog has already remarked, it looks as if the Yes campaign of Alex Salmond is now without all of its wheels. England has ruled out a currency union and the President of the EU commission pointed up serious problems about joining Europe with any kind of a smooth passage, if at all. The […]
It is ironic that at a time when the Roman Catholic Church and the Church of England both are in crisis, the two men at the helm of each in England, Archbishop, soon to be Cardinal, Vincent Nichols and Archbishop Justin Welby, are the strongest leaders either church has had for decades. Both comment freely […]
The decision of the senior Church of England bishops to deny to its gay members blessings to support civil gay marriage and to further deny its clergy the right to gay marriage and also to continue with the edict that civil partnerships among clergy are acceptable ‘provided the partners remain celibate’ is ungenerous, cruel, unfeeling, […]
In the chaos and distress now experienced in large parts of the country as the result of quite unprecedented weather patterns, among the multitude of things which have become clear, one above all stands out. The infrastructure, whether it is drains, power lines, railways or the maintenance of natural systems like dykes and rivers is […]