Category Archives: Uncategorized

Brussels 22/3

Posted on March 23, 2016 by bernardporter2013

The day of the Brussels bombings. But still she managed to get here. Kajsa, that is, from Stockholm. Despite heightened airport security, and a fire at Grantham station. (Don’t they know the Witch is dead?) The by now familiar conversation over wine … Continue reading →

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Migration and History

Posted on March 21, 2016 by bernardporter2013

The travails of the British Conservative party, although a source of great interest and amusement to the likes of me, seem trivial by the side of the great problem besetting us all just now: which is – apart from the ongoing … Continue reading →

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Tories, Austerity, and IDS

Posted on March 20, 2016 by bernardporter2013

Exciting things are happening in British politics just now, mainly Work and Pensions Secretary Iain Duncan Smith’s dramatic resignation from the cabinet on Friday. This is not as straightforward as it looks. Was it really over disability benefits, as he … Continue reading →

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Cambridge and homosexual harassment

Posted on March 17, 2016 by bernardporter2013

When I went up to Cambridge in October 1960, I found myself, for the first time, in the company of public schoolboys. My college (Corpus Christi) boasted – if that’s the word – a higher proportion of them than most, … Continue reading →

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Islam and the British Empire

Posted on March 14, 2016 by bernardporter2013

A couple of years ago I was asked to comment, in a Swedish TV interview, on a series of three documentaries, called Clash of Worlds, originally shown on BBC2, but still accessible on YouTube. (Here it is: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4E9cXw-TXBI&list=PLi7XUXYkpEgnWhhazbReib9BHEfYuGh2_) I was … Continue reading →

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Trump: a historical parallel

Posted on March 14, 2016 by bernardporter2013

A decisive moment in the career of Sir Oswald Mosley, leader of the British Union of Fascists in the 1930s, is supposed to have been a rally at Olympia on 7 June 1934, where violent scuffles broke out as hecklers … Continue reading →

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Elgar for Lefties

Posted on March 13, 2016 by bernardporter2013

A very fine talk yesterday at the Elgar Society Yorkshire Branch (of which I’m Hon Treasurer): Rachel Cowgill on what she called ‘Elgar’s War Requiem’ – which is what it is. Unfortunately it’s formally entitled The Spirit of England, which … Continue reading →

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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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