Category Archives: Uncategorized

So, it’s over. The verdict has been delivered, and the sentence – four more years of Trump – is about to begin. In Britain both Nigel Farage, not unexpectedly, and Suella Braverman appeared on BBC Radio this morning to enthusiastically … Continue reading →

8 pm, CET. Awaiting the US election results nervously. If Trump wins it may be a sign of the final victory of capitalism. That’s what he represents and indeed personifies: not America, or democracy, but the worst aspects of a … Continue reading →

Swedish companies are nearly a year into a dispute with Elon Musk’s Tesla, over trade union recognition. Unions are powerful here, with 90% membership, and ‘collective bargaining’ being (I think) a legal requirement in industrial disputes. This is rather like … Continue reading →

Here in Sweden Donald Trump is overwhelmingly unpopular, and indeed reviled; more so even than in most other European countries (https://yougov.co.uk/politics/articles/50844-who-do-europeans-want-to-win-the-2024-us-presidential-election). Obviously one would expect this, in view of the vast differences between our political cultures. Swedish friends of mine … Continue reading →

I feel I have a duty to comment on this issue, as an imperial historian, and as the author, fifty-six years ago (gosh!), of the first academic study of early British anti-imperialism. The question is this. Should Britain apologise and … Continue reading →

Until fairly recently calling Trump a ‘fascist’ was widely considered to be an exaggeration at best, or a typical left-wing slur at worst. It’s sometimes called the Reductio ad Hitlerum, or ‘Godwin’s Law: ‘as an online discussion grows longer, the … Continue reading →

Of course it’s inevitable, when you get to my age; but it can be devastating nonetheless. I lost another great friend yesterday – the fourth in about a year. We hadn’t seen each other for years, but we were close … Continue reading →

In a move reminiscent of Corbyn’s time in the UK, the Swedish Judiska Centralrådet – the equivalent, I presume, of the Jewish Board of Deputies in Britain – has effectively blacklisted the Swedish Vänsterpartiet (Left-Socialist), for its supposed anti-Semitism, or … Continue reading →

Nineteenth-century anti-democrats would recognise in recent events in the USA many of the dangers they warned against, if the ‘great unwashed’ were given the vote. They would point to the empowerment of ignorance, of short-sighted prejudices, of wild conspiracy theories, … Continue reading →

Of course there have been periods in the past when everything seemed to be getting terrifyingly worse – one thinks of the times before each of the two World Wars, or the Cuban missile crisis – but the present day … Continue reading →