Monthly Archives: March 2017

This might be thought to undermine the claim I made earlier, that London is totally unfazed by the so-called ‘terrorist’ attack on Westminster last week. Passing through Gatwick Airport security yesterday, I was stopped on suspicion of carrying a dangerous weapon. … Continue reading →

OK, we’ve cast the die. We’re Brexiting. There’s no way back. Learn to live with it, you Remainers; or ‘Remoaners’, as the tabloid press is dubbing us. Ever since they won the referendum, in fact, the Brexiters and their tabloid … Continue reading →

A recurring theme in British history over at least the past 200 years – if not quite a constant one – has been the idea of ‘progress’. Not merely the idea, but people’s belief in it, as one of the defining … Continue reading →

Perhaps votes should be weighted. Intelligent people’s votes should count more than idiots’. That would make my vote worth fifty times more than, say, Nigel Farage’s. Of course I can’t say anything so élitist; nor do I really believe it. … Continue reading →

Historians’ attitudes are often influenced by the history they study. I have to say that my distaste for covert domestic surveillance, secret policing and the like – except in extreme circumstances – has been coloured by the very honourable opposition … Continue reading →

The right-wing tabloid British press has two favourite scapegoats: immigrants, and social security scroungers. With Khalid Masood’s having been shown not to have been an immigrant after all – strictly speaking; although of course he was black – the Daily … Continue reading →

As an Islamic terrorist, Khalid Masood was pretty pathetic. Not only because of his abject failure, as described in my last post, but also because he doesn’t appear to have done his jihadist homework. His background was criminal rather than … Continue reading →

The first thing to remark about yesterday’s attack on and near the Palace of Westminster – though it may appear callous to say so, in view of the four innocent lives lost and the unknown number of serious casualties, all … Continue reading →

I’ve been invited to give a lecture at a ‘festival of history’ – ‘La Storia in Piazza’ – in the Sala del Consiglio Maggiore of the Palazzo Ducale in Genoa next month. The ‘festival’s theme is ‘Imperi’, and they want … Continue reading →

A worry. – Most intelligent people, and those with expertise, have been ‘Remainers’ in the British EU debate, and anti-Trump in America. I’m not saying that sensible cases can’t be made for both Brexit and Trump; only that the weight of … Continue reading →