Author Archives: bernardporter2013

Who would have thought that the time would come when hundreds of thousands of people all over the world would feel constrained, or provoked, to demonstrate in support of science? (https://www.theguardian.com/science/2017/apr/22/evidence-not-arrogance-uk-supporters-join-global-march-for-science.) There was one in Stockholm, too, yesterday. Nerds in … Continue reading →

‘Why bother listening to that stuff?’ asks Kajsa this morning in bed, as my i-Phone radio app (wonderful!) picks up Nigel Farage wildly berating a phone-in questioner on LBC. (She’s asked me to point out that she was only half … Continue reading →

National moods of nastiness, such as I described – and hopefully exaggerated – in my last post, are usually tied up with widespread pessimism and lack of hope. I don’t get any strong feeling that the Brexiteers, or the Trumpeters … Continue reading →

Brexit has opened a can of worms in more ways than one. I must say I had little idea of the sheer nastiness of many of my compatriots until I started looking more closely into the dark side of the … Continue reading →

Well, Corbyn has got to say he welcomes an early election, hasn’t he? Otherwise he appears ‘frit’ (to use Thatcher’s schoolgirl term). But it does look strictly unnecessary – the government is in no immediate danger – and merely opportunistic, … Continue reading →

Theresa May has come in for a lot of stick recently for her religious views: firstly for complaining at Cadbury’s not calling their chocolate eggs ‘Easter Eggs’, to remind us of the sacrifice of our dear Lord; and secondly for … Continue reading →

‘MOAB’ – the ‘mother of all bombs’. The biggest non-nuclear bomb ever, apparently, now hurled at Afghanistan. I always thought we were unwise to make jokes about the putative size of Trump’s member; is this his reply? And if so, … Continue reading →

This was the paper I delivered in Genoa last week, lightly edited, and without the powerpoint pics – which added to the fun. Hence its longer-than-average length. (It ran for fifty minutes.) The conference, or ‘Festival’, had ‘Empires’ as its … Continue reading →

No-one does towns and cities like the Italians. It must be an instinct embedded in them over the centuries: fine palaces, churches, habitations, all designed with perfect proportions – which is in my view the main quality defining great architecture … Continue reading →

We were in Genoa when we first heard of Friday’s Stockholm killings. Reports from Kajsa’s friends and relatives talked of smoke coming from the store the truck crashed into, public transport closed down, people rushing around on foot, and the inevitable rumours … Continue reading →