Author Archives: bernardporter2013

I’m a little surprised at Trump’s recently expressed expansionist ambitions – Greenland, Canada, Panama, his Gaza seafront condos – as I had always had him marked down as an isolationist, following in that well-trodden American tradition. But the US has … Continue reading →

I was brought up a Christian, in a very liberal (English Methodist) church. I was happy there, and only left when it was demanded of me that I have ‘faith’: ‘Faith, Hope and Charity’, as it says in the Good … Continue reading →

I’ve just watched a recording of Trump’s address to Congress yesterday. It was billed as 90 minutes long; but about half of that was taken up with clapping, whistles and screaming from the Republican side of the House. (The House … Continue reading →

Trump’s past commercial ties with Russia are pretty widely known – Google ‘Trump’s relationship with Russia’ if you’re not currently aware of them. He has clearly never been as brilliant a ‘deal maker’ as he makes himself out to be, … Continue reading →

Everyone who has followed this blog will know that I’m not a great one for attributing big events to individuals: what used to be called the ‘great man theory of history’ (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Great_man_theory). That ‘theory’ of course is more favoured by … Continue reading →

You’ll have seen this – everyone must have done by now. It even featured on tonight’s Swedish TV News. They called it ‘bisarra’. https://truthsocial.com/@realDonaldTrump/posts/114068387897265338 We don’t yet know its genesis. It appeared on Trump’s website. Did he order it? Or … Continue reading →

Starmer’s position on Ukraine – that he would support sending British troops there to keep the peace (whatever that means) – is a canny one from a domestic political point of view. For many years Labour lost votes for being … Continue reading →

Trump’s problem – or, rather, our problem with Trump – is that he can’t think analytically. Or at all. He simply accepts what he’s told by his ideological allies, on Fox TV and social media, or by the last world … Continue reading →

Vice-President JD Vance’s speech on Saturday to the Munich Security Conference (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pCOsgfINdKg) may have marked a crucial turning-point in recent world history. This is not only for its signalling of the USA’s disengagement from the defence of Europe after eighty … Continue reading →