Monthly Archives: September 2016

My historical centre of gravity, so to speak, is the 1890s, and has involved research into the London Metropolitan Police; so I’ve been a keen follower of the current BBC2 series Ripper Street, starring Matthew Macfadyen as Inspector Reid, a … Continue reading →

A number of leading Brexiteers are currently floating the idea that perhaps we could compensate for our (likely) exclusion from the European Single Market by forging an alternative single market with our old Commonwealth ‘friends’. This harks back to late … Continue reading →

Yesterday Lauri Love failed in his appeal against extradition to the USA on computer hacking charges, despite his suffering from Asperger’s syndrome and being a strong suicide risk. (See https://www.theguardian.com/law/2016/sep/16/computer-activist-lauri-love-loses-appeal-against-us-extradition.) All I can add to this from my historical knowledge … Continue reading →

In the Observer this morning Barbara Ellen wonders how the Labour Party, under Corbyn, has turned into the ‘stinking, slippery well’ it is now; ‘a hot-desking playpen for conceited, clueless backbench-lifers, peddling everything from pungent whiffs of anti-Semitism, sexism and … Continue reading →

When John Profumo was forced to resign from Macmillan’s government in 1963 it wasn’t because he’d had an affair with a call girl, but because he’d lied about it. Lying was considered to be far more reprehensible than illicit sex. … Continue reading →

It should be obvious that Britain’s present electoral system is an undemocratic mess. (I’ve posted on this before: https://bernardjporter.wordpress.com/2016/02/29/first-past-the-post/.) This must be one of the reasons (though not the only one) why there is so little respect in the country … Continue reading →

It was Enoch Powell who famously claimed that ‘all political careers end in failure’. That’s probably not true in every case – it depends how you measure ‘failure’ – but it certainly is in Cameron’s. (He announced his resignation today … Continue reading →

Oh no, not Grammar schools again! (https://www.theguardian.com/education/2016/sep/09/theresa-may-to-end-ban-on-new-grammar-schools#img-1.) I know a bit about these, having been to one in the 1950s, and my father having been headmaster of an Essex Secondary Modern at the same time. I can confirm the sense … Continue reading →

Being an oldie, I’m often left far behind when it comes to contemporary popular culture. That’s a great disadvantage, I’ve found, when it comes to my weekly Pub Quiz, though luckily I have team-mates who seem to follow the pop … Continue reading →

There will be a piece on the Julian Assange affair in tomorrow’s Guardian.* (Remember him?) This follows a press conference given today in Gothenberg by his Swedish prosecutor, Marianne Ny, against whom the Swedish press seems at last to be … Continue reading →