Category Archives: Uncategorized

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 →

Many of the difficulties besetting our very imperfect European Union have arisen from its territorial expansion, especially to the east and south-east, taking in states that used to be under the aegis of the Soviet bloc. The next on the … Continue reading →

So far as I can gather, and after only a few hours back in Utopia, the Swedes really don’t know what to make of Boris Johnson. Here’s a short recent local television news item on him: http://www.svt.se/nyheter/utrikes/populare-boris-jamfor-eu-med-illasittande-kalsonger. (‘Kalsonger’ are men’s underpants, and refers … Continue reading →

En route back to Stockholm. I notice on the Guardian website that the Julian Assange case has popped into the news again, albeit marginally: http://www.theguardian.com/media/2016/may/25/swedish-court-upholds-julian-assange-arrest-warrant-wikileaks. I’ve written on this before, drawing from my expertise in counter-espionage history, and my residence in Sweden. My … Continue reading →

The Cannes Film Festival’s award of its Palme d’Or to Ken Loach’s I, Daniel Blake is a significant event politically as well as culturally. Loach is the last of our genuinely radical film directors who is not a ‘Luvvie’, making … Continue reading →

If we can have a referendum on Britain’s membership of the EU, why can’t we have one on TTIP? The latter may well pose a far greater threat to our democracy than the former, although exactly how much of a … Continue reading →

After my post on West Ham’s final game at Upton Park a couple of weeks ago (https://bernardjporter.wordpress.com/2016/05/11/goodbye-to-boleyn/), I promised to ‘lay off’ football for a while. But having just come across this alternative account of the ‘riot’ before that match, … Continue reading →

I’ve been looking back at the 1975 referendum on British membership of what was then called the ‘Common Market’. (This is for those who weren’t around then.) The circumstances of its being held at all are interesting. The main motive … Continue reading →