Author Archives: bernardporter2013

This guy’s a serious thinker, with a broad view. Mainly USA, but recommended for its analysis of the British situation too; since we abandoned ‘social democracy’ – the great project of Attlee and Wilson – for ‘liberal democracy’ – Thatcher … Continue reading →

Ain’t dat de trut’? And ain’t it a shame (for me) that my new book – Britain’s Contested History. Lessons for Patriots: bang on the topic, as the subtitle hints – isn’t quite out yet to illustrate and amplify the … Continue reading →

Yes, Swedish TV did report the Jubilee celebrations the other night, cheering patriots and all; and with a reprise of the original coronation of seventy years ago – golden carriage, golden crown, golden everything. OK, so we Brits do this … Continue reading →

I’m trying to interest newspapers in short articles to whet the appetite for my new book when it comes out next month. I’m told they should ideally be hooked on to news items of the day. So here’s one I’ve … Continue reading →

I’m sorry, but as well as thoughts about little subjects like politics, architecture, spies, cricket and imperialism, I’m most of my time just now taken up with BIG thoughts; albeit with my tiny mind, which is why I don’t usually … Continue reading →

For people who live in the same country continuously, and never even read about ‘abroad’, the situation in their own country must appear normal. So it won’t occur to them that certain institutions they’ve grown up with are in fact … Continue reading →

Back in Sweden – and how good it is to be in a country where everything still works! My medical practice in Hull doesn’t. Taken over recently by a ‘Group’, with its phone centre in Wales or somewhere, I found … Continue reading →

A week or so ago a Tory MP asserted in Parliament that there would be no need for food banks if only the poor would learn to cook and shop for themselves. Their problem, he asserted, was that in this … Continue reading →

So Sweden is joining NATO at last, after decades of studied refusal, and centuries of principled and proud neutrality; which makes the decision of her governing Social Democratic Party, to be confirmed by Parliament today (I think), a truly ‘historic’ … Continue reading →

I don’t know whether the following kind of parallel is at all significant or useful – probably not at all. But I’m often struck by the historical similarities between Britain, where I come from, and Scandinavia, my new home-region. (Part-time, … Continue reading →