This piece of very good news was not widely dwelt on by commentators, but it does represent a refreshing realism, so absent from the Foreign Office whenever it thinks about eastern Europe. As this blog has repeatedly asserted, Russia is an integral part of what we might call Greater Europe and forms its eastern frontier as Britain is […]
There is no doubt that the standard in English which the current modular system of GCSE exams produces, falls short of what many young people need to get a good, or indeed any, job, unless they achieve the top grades. This is why Michael Gove is changing the system. Quite separately there is the question […]
The US Presidential Election is a real fight to the finish. As previously sated on this blog, we take the view that the election is historically Romney’s and therefore his to lose. If Obama keeps the Presidency it will be a triumph against many odds. Abroad Obama is the overwhelming preference for the man to lead America, […]
If Obama loses the Presidency, history will record that he did so at the first debate, when he was outclassed by an opponent whom he had badly underestimated. It is not as simple as that. The problem for the President is that he has been unable to achieve all that he inspired Americans to believe […]
Sir Mervyn King, whose grasp of the fundamental problems facing the Western economies five years after the credit crunch is far sharper than many less astute economists give him credit for, warns that under-capitalisation of banks which still harbour over valued assets in their balance sheets, which they are in denial about writing down, will […]
The Culture Secretary, Maria Miller, was right to send a letter to the Chairman of the BBC Trust, expressing anxiety at the chaos surrounding the Savile scandal, made all the more glaring by the unfortunate and embarrassing appearance of the Director General before MPs. Lord Patten, whilst acknowledging that all was far from well, reminded the minister […]
There appears to be another muddle at the heart of the cancellation of the proposed badger cull. Notwithstanding that, animal rights campaigners are delighted. This blog hopes for a more reasoned approach, as the present rationale for the cull appears as muddled as the delay which has stopped it. If there were powerful evidence to demonstrate that […]
The car bomb attack which killed the Lebanese security chief and the subsequent violent demonstration in Beirut underscores what has been said by experienced correspondents in the area for some time; the civil war in Syria is spilling over the borders into its close neighbour. Such is the ethnic and religious mix in Lebanon, interwoven with armed […]
Quicker than Downing Street was spinning, the Prime Minister has appointed a new chief whip. Sir George Young, an honourable veteran in his seventies of governments as far back as Thatcher, twice defeated in his quest to become Speaker by odd ball candidates and recently retired from the cabinet in the reshuffle, is back. Several […]
The departure of Andrew Mitchell would have been something little more than a political storm in a teacup if he had gone immediately after losing his rag because he was not allowed through the big posh gate and had to use the plebby one at the side. After a month of festering and ridicule his […]