Category Archives: Uncategorized

Harold Wilson

Posted on March 11, 2016 by bernardporter2013

Happy 100th birthday to Harold Wilson, a great reforming Labour Prime Minister, shamefully traduced by both the Right and the Left since his retirement and death, but intelligent, progressive, politically savvy, a real man of the people, consensual, and with … Continue reading →

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Trump: the long view

Posted on March 10, 2016 by bernardporter2013

I’m no authority on American politics, though I follow them closely – staying up all night to watch presidential election results, for example (all week in November 2000, over the ‘hanging chads’) – and have lived and worked in the … Continue reading →

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British imperialism forgotten?

Posted on March 8, 2016 by bernardporter2013

Young Owen Jones, who seems to be everywhere these days, and whose books and journalism I greatly admire, recently published on the Guardian website – and possibly in the print version too, though I couldn’t find it there – an … Continue reading →

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The Four Yorkshiremen updated

Posted on March 8, 2016 by bernardporter2013

I first saw the ‘Four Yorkshiremen’ sketch at a Cambridge Footlights ‘Smoker’ in the 1960s. That might have been its first outing. I have an idea that it was originally created by my old Thespian mate Bill Oddy (now better … Continue reading →

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Beloved Terrorist

Posted on March 7, 2016 by bernardporter2013

Recommended reading. It’s in Swedish; I’m hoping it will appear in English translation soon. It’s by and about Anna, a Swede, who was married to a jihadist for sixteen years. http://www.adlibris.com/se/bok/alskade-terrorist-16-ar-med-militanta-islamister-9789113059136 I know Anna. (How we met is mentioned in … Continue reading →

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Burying History

Posted on March 5, 2016 by bernardporter2013

‘On Friday, as part of a speech urging the UK to leave the European Union, Dr Liam Fox MP said that the UK was “one of the few countries in the European Union that does not need to bury its … Continue reading →

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The Swedish Alternative to Austerity

Posted on March 5, 2016 by bernardporter2013

Back in Sweden again. What strikes me this time is the great contrast between the political and economic mood here, and back in my other home in the UK. Britain is gripped by ‘austerity’, and full of gloom and doom … Continue reading →

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Blair, Faith and Terror

Posted on March 4, 2016 by bernardporter2013

The thing that really finished it for me with Tony Blair – more than student fees, over which I resigned from the Labour Party, and the Iraq war, over which I would have resigned if I hadn’t done so already … Continue reading →

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The Decline of the British Media

Posted on March 3, 2016 by bernardporter2013

Apparently the British print media is doomed. The current demise of the Indy is the first major casualty. Soon our only news sources will be the internet, whither the Indy has retreated, but which is hugely unreliable; and radio, TV and … Continue reading →

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THE LAST TRUMP

Posted on March 2, 2016 by bernardporter2013

Contemplating the end of the world, as one is bound to when watching Donald Trump on TV, I fell to musing what single thing I would want to be preserved as a token for the rest of the universe, of … Continue reading →

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