Author Archives: bernardporter2013

As a historian, and fully aware of past British xenophobia – indeed, I’ve written about it – I can’t recall any other British government since the 17th century which had a policy of getting rid, in one way or another, of … Continue reading →

Of course living in a foreign country broadens the mind. That’s why the organisation known as ‘Democrats Abroad’ (http://www.democratsabroad.org/) is making such huge efforts to register the American expatriate vote for the forthcoming presidential election. Its assumption is that US … Continue reading →

The Tories aren’t as stupid as they’re made out. In fact, part of their cleverness has always lain in pretending that they are dumber than they really are. That’s how they escaped the guillotine (or hangman’s noose) in French revolutionary times … Continue reading →

I’ve just watched an entire Trump speech on my i-phone (Manheim, Pennsylvania, October 1: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uY89pjXa-EU). Yes, pity me. It lasted over an hour but could have been boiled down to a minute: ‘Make America great again’, ‘Crooked Hillary’, and ‘Me, … Continue reading →

The last time that people in Britain – some of them, at any rate – got seriously exercised about ‘inequality’, as opposed to simple ‘poverty’, was a hundred years ago. The key work then – the rough equivalent of Richard … Continue reading →

On our Swedish island for the weekend. Beautiful autumn weather, a blazing log stove, and plenty of wine. It seems a world away from Donald Trump; but of course you can’t avoid him even here, and if he is elected … Continue reading →

Liam Fox’s encomium to global free trade, delivered recently in Manchester, the original home of the idea  (https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2016/sep/30/globalisation-poverty-corruption-free-trade-liam-fox), gives me an excuse to re-post this blog of mine from April this year, on the early Victorian version of the ideology, which Fox appears … Continue reading →

Four or five years ago I had an unusually painful experience with one of my publishers, and decided to write about it for the THES. They eventually published the article, but only after it had been ‘lawyered’ almost to death. So, … Continue reading →

A small gripe. I get a bit fed up with Swedish friends suggesting – even jokingly – that I must have some latent ‘imperialist’ DNA in me because I’m British, and even more when they learn that I write about … Continue reading →

Having resisted commenting on the Clinton-Trump ‘debate’, on the grounds of lack of expertise, I may have something to contribute based on my long historical view. For me, the telling episode in the debate came when Trump justified certain anti-social … Continue reading →