What the British ambassador said about the Trump administration not only comes as no surprise, but it is common currency among diplomats and politicians the world over. He also said Trump should not be written off. Wise words because the definition of populism is in an unorthodox form of politics which breaks all rules and […]
It is three years since the Brexit project began; a simple in or out concept which would be, according to its promoters, the easiest negotiation in history, if out were the choice. It was. And here we are, three years on in political, constitutional and Brexit chaos. Positively nobody knows what is going to happen. […]
The unique contest between Boris and Hunt, the first when the membership outside parliament of a political party has elected a leader when that party is the government, is becoming increasingly unreal. Unreal because Hunt is making wildly optimistic assertions of his powers as a negotiator when he knows very well that the chances of […]
The history of heavy handed confrontation with the aspiration of regime change, or at least a revision of political behaviors, is one of almost complete failure. At best some sort of stand off becomes the norm and at worst a pointless war begins which goes on and on and achieves little. So it is impossible […]
If the reports of an American cyber attack on Iranian military systems are true it makes sense. The U.S. enthusiasm for deploying enormous firepower in carrier led battle fleets is awe inspiring, visible and sobering. But it is old fashioned and might very well lead to the kind of wars without end that the Trump […]
Wow. It did not take long! Already Boris is embroiled in controversy. It must be said that the private lives of other people are no concern of this blog. All families and relationships have their ups and downs. To many people Boris is Boris and like Trump he is a Teflon person of whom people […]
As predicted by this blog in previous posts Stewart fell, Gove had baggage to do with Boris and Hunt, the man in the neat suit who talked to the issues and answered the questions, got through to the final. Just. Rumours of votes being traded trickle through Westminster. They are probably right. Among its many […]
By the end of today we will know whose challenge Boris will have to defeat to become Prime Minister. Yesterday saw the end of the energising campaign of Rory Stewart, brought down for the very reasons set out in my previous posts, in which I opined that his was the pragmatic realism the country needed […]
The format of last night’s BBC leadership debate was wrong. It was clever but it did not work. A debate without an audience becomes an argument and arguments are frustrating things to watch. Emily Maitlis did her very best, but too often everybody was shouting and nothing could be heard. Superficially Hunt, Gove and Javid […]
Since the days of the US hostages I have felt the West’s approach has been rather lacking in imagination when dealing with Iran. More recently there has been some divergence between the Trump administration and the EU. The US policy is a mixture of fawning over the Saudis, obeying Israel’s commands to dump the Palestinians, […]