Category Archives: Uncategorized

Universities in Britain – especially the newer ones – are often ridiculed for offering degree courses in so-called ‘Mickey Mouse’ subjects, in order to attract a wider range of punters. As an ex-university teacher of a more ‘traditional’ and – … Continue reading →

It looks as if I returned from England just in time. According to Elon Musk, ‘civil war is inevitable’ there now, after the riots of the last weekend. Wouldn’t that be great for Musk’s newly-acquired social media site ‘X’ (formerly … Continue reading →

Immigration is a problem just now in England mainly because people think it is. Which is not to say that there aren’t genuinely problematic aspects to it – housing the refugees, for example; accommodating them safely in the meantime; adjudicating … Continue reading →

This is the first time I’ve seen all my books stacked together – with a couple of duplicates, but minus a few later editions. I brought them back with me to Stockholm last month. It occurs to me that having … Continue reading →

The horrible knife-murders of those very young children at a dance class in Stockport the other day, and the violent riots that followed them there and elsewhere, the latter exploited if not directly incited by the far Right, are deeply … Continue reading →

One of the profoundest sorrows of my life as an observer of politics is the way Jews, once the most visible and extreme victims of Fascism, have now taken on many of the attributes and actions of Fascism themselves. I … Continue reading →

I regard Harold Wilson as one of the greatest of our peace-time prime ministers: monstrously vilified at the time from the political Right – paranoiacs in MI5 even had him marked as a Soviet spy – but a good and … Continue reading →

An unexpected pleasure of our long drive up from Rotterdam to Stockholm was to visit the north German/Hanseatic churches along the way; all built in brick, usually regarded as an inferior building material to stone – more domestic than monumental … Continue reading →

For those of you who haven’t come across these already, here are Trump’s running-mate’s takes on (a) Donald Trump himself in 2016; and (b) the corrosive effect of his own alma mater (Yale), and of universities generally, today. The first … Continue reading →

Even serious works – like this blog – need a scherzo. Here’s mine for now; some superficial holiday observations. After a pleasant month in Less-than-Great Britain, Kajsa and I are now on our way back to Sweden: her lifelong home … Continue reading →