Author Archives: bernardporter2013

Happy Swedish National Day tomorrow! It celebrates their liberation from the Danes in 1523. Curious people the Danes: mild and friendly today, Lego, Hans Christian Anderson, lovely open sandwiches…  But 500-1000 years ago they were bloodthirsty monsters, stabbing, axeing, gouging … Continue reading →

It shows to what depths the perception and coverage of British politics has sunk just now when everything is perceived in terms of personal advantage and cynical strategy. ‘Why has he taken that side rather than the other?’ Obviously because … Continue reading →

Further to my last post: there’s a good account of Corbyn’s major European speech today on the Guardian website: (http://www.theguardian.com/politics/2016/jun/02/jeremy-corbyn-uk-cannot-must-not-close-borders-to-eu-workers). Clear, strong, nuanced and principled, in my view, and surely good enough for anyone who complains that he isn’t stating … Continue reading →

So, if Brexit wins on the 23rd, it’s all Corbyn’s fault!  (http://www.theguardian.com/politics/2016/jun/01/jeremy-corbyn-pro-immigration-case-eu-referendum-gmb-union-tim-roache.) That’s what they were all saying too on this morning’s Today programme (which I listen to in Sweden on my iPhone: wonderful!), whose presenters are really quite incredibly biased … Continue reading →

Post taken down! Since writing it I’ve read up some more, and realised how inadequate it was. That’s the problem with instant publication.

I woke up this morning thoroughly depressed, as I have been since I finished my last book, with no other writing on the go, apart from the occasional review and this unread blog; when Kajsa cheered me up with a … Continue reading →

This blog is getting too political, and too serious. But History can also be fun. One way is to imagine ‘hypothetical histories’ – how we (or they) might have turned out if a key event in the past had not … Continue reading →

All the talk in the Westminster Bubble these days – according to my reading of the metropolitan press, which of course is part of the Bubble itself – is about what damage the current Conservative divisions over Europe will do to … Continue reading →

Now the IMF – the IMF! – admits that it was wrong all along. http://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/politics/neoliberalism-is-increasing-inequality-and-stunting-economic-growth-the-imf-says-a7052416.htm. So, back again to the early 1900s, when it was first ‘discovered’ that neo-liberalism (then, of course, the old liberalism) didn’t work. One of the ‘lessons … Continue reading →

If it’s true that the main division in almost every nation’s politics just now, cutting across the traditional left-right one, is between ‘establishments’ on the one hand and those who are disillusioned with conventional parties and politics on the other, … Continue reading →