Category Archives: Uncategorized

I very much doubt that this really is the worst time ever in British history, though it’s beginning to feel like it. Obviously periods of war, famine, extreme poverty, political oppression and great natural catastrophes bring far more suffering to … Continue reading →

My latest review: https://www.theguardian.com/books/2016/dec/21/empire-of-booze-henry-jeffreys-review. Just a fun piece. But – hey! – it’s Christmas.

The LRB Xmas party was pretty good fun, as usual. I always feel at home there, amongst the Metropolitan Lefty intellectuals; much more so than at the Literary Review ‘Bad Sex Awards’ party, held just before, at the Army and … Continue reading →

No proper post this time, just a pic. With our lost leader, at the LRB Christmas Party, 12 December. He would be my choice still.

So, David Cameron blames his ignominious defeat over Brexit on the rise of ‘populism’ (http://www.huffingtonpost.co.uk/entry/david-cameron-populism-cost-him-his-job-following-eu-referendum_uk_584a6921e4b0fccb67992bcc). By that he clearly means the ‘mob’, which has been the great bugbear of his class and political persuasion for centuries. It was the fear of … Continue reading →

My latest review is of a book about Scandinavia: literaryreview.co.uk/nordic-by-nature. It’s behind a paywall; but here is my original version. Robert Ferguson, Scandinavians. In Search of the Soul of the North. Blake Books, 455 pp., illustrated, £25. 3 Nov 2016. This … Continue reading →

Sorry for the silence. Due to travel, family, despair at the way things are going (except in Austria), and the feeling that I’ve nothing new or original to say. But I’ll be back. In the meantime this (below) seems to … Continue reading →

I posted some historical background to the ‘Snooper’s Charter’, which has just been passed, in March this year. Here it is: https://bernardjporter.com/2016/03/01/the-snoopers-charter/.

The talk seemed to go OK, though you can never tell. About 60 there? I kept it short and informal. My host thought parts of it might be ‘outside their comfort zone’ (I think he meant a bit left-wing), and so … Continue reading →

Clio has let me down. Not that I’ve ever regarded History as a reliable guide to the present or the future, and much of my recent writing activity has been devoted to questioning the lessons that others have believed they could … Continue reading →