Category Archives: Uncategorized

The Palace of Westminster is crumbling. It will require £3 billion to restore it. I’ve never been very fond of the building architecturally, and it wasn’t popular when it was built – least of all among MPs, who complained of … Continue reading →

No belief that can’t be insulted is worthy of respect.

When I began following West Ham fifty years ago nearly all the team was made up of local lads, including the World Cup-winning trio of Moore, Hurst and Peters; plus Harry Redknapp – a bit of a joke on the … Continue reading →

The Assange affair rumbles on. Assange is still holed up in the Ecuadorian Embassy, at a cost of God knows how much to the taxpayers of Ecuador, and more to those of the UK, to pay for the police stationed … Continue reading →

I understand that I have some new subscribers, even though I haven’t contributed to this blogsite for a year. So I’ll add some posts shortly – mainly things I’ve written for other blogs or newspapers.

As a principled anti-nationalist, I hope Scotland doesn’t vote for independence, and stays with us English. If I were a Scot, however, I might feel otherwise. The Scottish political discourse really is very different from the Southern English – more … Continue reading →

In the Guardian today there’s a long piece by Michael Booth on Scandinavia, based on his new book, about which I blogged here when I received it for review in December. Here is my finished review, coming out in the … Continue reading →

I’m still trying to work out why the British seem so much less worked up about the Snowden revelations than other peoples. In the old East Germany last summer, for example, I witnessed public demonstrations in support of him. Angela … Continue reading →

Another re-post, from an LRB blog (2 July 2012). Forget all the books – I think this is one of the best things I’ve written. It may be because I’m a professional historian, and so proprietorial towards my subject, but … Continue reading →

I’ve just been sent a popular book about Scandinavia to review. It’s by an Englishman. As a long-time English resident in Sweden (on and off), I always feel nervous and rather defensive when I come across books like this. This … Continue reading →