Monthly Archives: January 2019

This is unanswerable. By a leading economist (one of Michael Gove’s ‘experts’). It’s thoroughly worth reading. I wish I’d written it. https://www.newstatesman.com/politics/economy/2019/01/why-uk-cannot-see-brexit-utterly-utterly-stupid?fbclid=IwAR3iXPOUFA2YNVVnqj5dtjv0s40ojQadcKyyi4ilXdKkyjAud1iajF1qC6c. It’s a nightmare, isn’t it? Nearly everyone abroad sees this clearly. But it’s hard for us British to … Continue reading →

I’m feeling a little guilty about my suggestion in my last post that we try to appease the more red-necked Brexiteers by giving in to them to an extent (the ‘Norway option’). I was more affected than perhaps I should … Continue reading →

Every intelligent person – and it is partly a question of intelligence, however much Brexiteers may resent the imputation – now knows that the Brexit referendum was a cheat, with blatant lies, too many and too familiar to list, peddled on … Continue reading →

Britain’s relative decline, diplomatically and economically, began as long ago as the third quarter of the nineteenth century; when she embarked on her policy of ‘imperialism’ in a desperate effort to reverse it. I realise this isn’t a conventional way … Continue reading →

I feel I should comment on the last few days’ major political events (in Britain), but really I have nothing new to add to the torrent of opinion and speculation that is engulfing us now. It was all so predictable … Continue reading →

The ‘public’ schools really are a menace to modern British society, as this Guardian article, announcing a new book on the subject (yet another!), argues in some detail: https://www.theguardian.com/education/2019/jan/13/public-schools-david-kynaston-francis-green-engines-of-privilege. There’s nothing here – there may be in the book – about … Continue reading →

In principle I entirely agree that anyone seeking citizenship in a country, or even permanent residence, ought to learn that country’s language. I used to have my hair cut in Branford, Connecticut, by a man who had lived there for … Continue reading →

To add to my instant review of the Channel 4 ‘Brexit’ drama below: of course its main point has to do with the way democracy can be subverted by these clever modern and technical extensions of the old ‘Hidden Persuaders’ … Continue reading →

Last night we managed to catch the Channel 4 drama-documentary Brexit: an Uncivil War, which we missed when it was originally broadcast, through a link Kajsa found. There’s a good review of it in today’s Dagens Nyheter (by a friend of … Continue reading →

Historians don’t usually like to guess the future. They know how unreliable that sort of thing has been in the past. Where’s the ‘thousand-year Reich’ today? Or, come to that, the thousand-year British Empire? (Yes, in the early 1900s some imperialists … Continue reading →