Monthly Archives: January 2015

I’ve never bought into the idea that Islam is a religion of peace and freedom which is being perverted by a few extremists. Here’s a comment I found on a Guardian blogsite this morning: ‘The problem is that many followers of … Continue reading →

The February edition of History Today will carry an article by me on ‘Surveillance: a new British tradition’. It contrasts our acceptance of all kinds of government intrusion into our affairs today with Britain’s proud and national identity-defining anti-espionage tradition until … Continue reading →

The Palace of Westminster is crumbling. It will require £3 billion to restore it. I’ve never been very fond of the building architecturally, and it wasn’t popular when it was built – least of all among MPs, who complained of … Continue reading →

No belief that can’t be insulted is worthy of respect.

When I began following West Ham fifty years ago nearly all the team was made up of local lads, including the World Cup-winning trio of Moore, Hurst and Peters; plus Harry Redknapp – a bit of a joke on the … Continue reading →

The Assange affair rumbles on. Assange is still holed up in the Ecuadorian Embassy, at a cost of God knows how much to the taxpayers of Ecuador, and more to those of the UK, to pay for the police stationed … Continue reading →

I understand that I have some new subscribers, even though I haven’t contributed to this blogsite for a year. So I’ll add some posts shortly – mainly things I’ve written for other blogs or newspapers.