Everybody is shocked at the wave of street killings in London so far in 2018. The natural reaction is to find a single cause and someone or something to blame; too little stop and search, too few police on the streets and so on. The truth is more complex than the soundbite can articulate. Eight […]
There is much about the Salisbury poisoning which does not make sense to the average onlooker, but the British people have for the most part accepted the line that the Russians are behind the assault and, in the case of Boris Johnson, that not just the Russian State, but Putin directly, had ordered the attack. […]
Antisemitism This blog is not antisemitic and does not support antisemitism in any form and especially not if it can be seen to be institutional. But it cannot see how attending a Jewish function, run by Orthodox Jews, with a Rabbi present can be said to be antisemitic. This blog has always favoured a Palestinian […]
When this blog was last active on a daily basis, the May government was in trouble on almost every front and GB was more or less ignored on the international stage. Then came Salisbury. At first it was thought that the attack was a sign of Britain’s weakness through its preoccupation with Brexit. Now it […]
I am sorry to have been silent through such a turbulent period, but I have to give priority to my fiction project. But I follow everything that is going on and here are a few thoughts. BREXIT. It is now certain that we are heading for a soft Brexit. First, because nothing else will get through […]
This blog is operating on a now and again basis because I am busy on a demanding fiction project. Thank you for your patience. Over recent days some underlying themes have caught my attention for quick share. Brexit May’s heavily trailed speech laying out the detail of her Brexit plans disappointed everybody apart from her […]
Since the end of the Cold War I have been arguing and writing for a more inclusive approach to Russia. The reasons are well rehearsed and need not be repeated here. I have also said that however you wish to describe her and however sniffy you are about her interpretation of democracy, Mother Russia is […]
I have an important piece of brand new fiction now in process of writing and while that happens I will not have time to maintain a regular Blog. As there is so much going on at here and abroad, I will contribute from time to time on the big issues and links will appear on […]
The inevitable day of reckoning is coming. A combination of a split Tory party facing diametrically opposed positions plus the ultra unionist DUP which makes, under Arlene Foster, an industry out of blocking coherent government, which is why NI power sharing has stopped, means that the UK’s official position on Brexit is a fantasy assembled […]
There is something very odd about this Tory government. Thatcher would not even recognise it as a government. Because governments act and do and fix. But this government just talks. It talks in airy fairy terms about aspirations and hopes, whether about Brexit or tuition fees or whatever, as if accepting that it is not […]