Author Archives: bernardporter2013

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 →

Some crumbs of comfort for America. The horror of Trump seems to have galvanised the Left – certainly women (see last post but one) – which is all to the good. A few of his concrete policies might actually be … Continue reading →

Tony Blair and David Cameron have this in common: that despite their many achievements (Blair’s, anyway), they will be mainly remembered in history for their two great catastrophic failures of judgment – the Iraq war, and the EU referendum. Other … Continue reading →

A clear majority of people in the USA is against Trump, and a clear majority in Britain finds Farage risible; and yet these two clowns appear just now to be the immoveable political winners in their respective countries. There are … Continue reading →

My daughter Kate has just ventured into the entrepreneurial world (after her Oscar triumph) by putting on to the market this new skin cleansing balm: https://www.harbourelements.com (that’s her, in the second picture), which recently got this fantastic review in The … Continue reading →

The Guardian this morning reports an ‘epidemic’ of sexual harassment cases in British universities. What defines an ‘epidemic’? More, surely, than the handful that are enumerated in its tables on page 7. To take the three British universities I have … Continue reading →

If the Devil has all the best tunes, it seems to be the losers who have all the best laughs. Trump’s victory has produced a treasure-house of wonderful anti-Trump jokes and mockery, on television, in the press and (especially) on … Continue reading →

‘A tunnel vision nationalism, which focuses only on independence at any cost, sells Scotland short.’ That was Theresa May at the Scottish Conservative Party Conference yesterday. I misheard it at first, assuming she was referring to Britain and Brexit. The … Continue reading →