Author Archives: bernardporter2013

A sort of novel. It’s meant to be satirical. I don’t really believe Thatcher was a Soviet mole – the point is, however, that it would make perfect sense if she were. Either a free-standing little story; or I could continue … Continue reading →

I’m decided to reactivate this blogsite, after a year of silence, mainly to give me a ‘project’ to work on now that I have no more books to write. It will be a mix: comments on the news, especially relating to … Continue reading →

I’ve never bought into the idea that Islam is a religion of peace and freedom which is being perverted by a few extremists. Here’s a comment I found on a Guardian blogsite this morning: ‘The problem is that many followers of … Continue reading →

The February edition of History Today will carry an article by me on ‘Surveillance: a new British tradition’. It contrasts our acceptance of all kinds of government intrusion into our affairs today with Britain’s proud and national identity-defining anti-espionage tradition until … Continue reading →

The Palace of Westminster is crumbling. It will require £3 billion to restore it. I’ve never been very fond of the building architecturally, and it wasn’t popular when it was built – least of all among MPs, who complained of … Continue reading →

No belief that can’t be insulted is worthy of respect.

When I began following West Ham fifty years ago nearly all the team was made up of local lads, including the World Cup-winning trio of Moore, Hurst and Peters; plus Harry Redknapp – a bit of a joke on the … Continue reading →

The Assange affair rumbles on. Assange is still holed up in the Ecuadorian Embassy, at a cost of God knows how much to the taxpayers of Ecuador, and more to those of the UK, to pay for the police stationed … Continue reading →

I understand that I have some new subscribers, even though I haven’t contributed to this blogsite for a year. So I’ll add some posts shortly – mainly things I’ve written for other blogs or newspapers.

As a principled anti-nationalist, I hope Scotland doesn’t vote for independence, and stays with us English. If I were a Scot, however, I might feel otherwise. The Scottish political discourse really is very different from the Southern English – more … Continue reading →