Category Archives: Uncategorized

As an undergraduate at university in England I studied more American history than British, including a ‘Special Subject’ on the 1840s, up to the ‘Great Compromise’ of 1850. As a result I’ve always rather admired the US political/governmental system, and … Continue reading →

Eleven years ago I published a piece on the LRB blogsite, bemoaning the capture of the ‘People’s Game’ by capitalism, and its consequent decline as a sport which in the past had used to truly represent communities, rather than the … Continue reading →

Should people have things they said and did decades ago at school held against them today? The question has come up in Britain recently, with reference to Reform Party leader Nigel Farage, whose overtly Nazi comments whilst a teenager at … Continue reading →

So the jury system in Britain is coming under question once again (https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cy7vdvrnnvzo). This is nothing new. The jury system is a messy one, with twelve ‘ordinary citizens’ having to be recruited each time at random, to have the last … Continue reading →

Can a teacher who is committed to a particular political point of view teach political history objectively? I’m pretty sure the answer is yes. In my own career (long ago now) as a lecturer and professor at a number of … Continue reading →

Kajsa tells me that Trump is very influential on the centre-Right of Swedish politics; as he is of course in Britain. That seems amazing to me. Surely no foreign politician has exerted so much personal influence abroad, even in social … Continue reading →

Just a few years ago, when the ‘culture wars’, ‘political correctness’, ‘no platforming’ and ‘wokeness’ first burst – or rather slunk – on to the political scene, I remember being irritated by them, but only mildly. I recall just one … Continue reading →

‘That’s not who we are’. You sometimes hear this from liberal Americans who disapprove of policies or actions taken by their country, or by its people or Presidents. But of course it’s not entirely true. Going back over US history … Continue reading →

I know very little about the American judicial system, apart from what I’ve seen in films like Twelve Angry Men, which probably idealised it, and in any case is seventy years old. So I don’t know what is likely to … Continue reading →

At this moment I feel like I probably would have done in the 1930s: – that the world is hurtling towards a catastrophic end. Even before climate change fries us, our population is multiplying to a level that surely can’t … Continue reading →