Category Archives: Uncategorized

Despite a pretty good education in and experience of American history and politics, I’ve been surprised recently at the degree of power a President can wield if he’s not ‘checked and balanced’. Over the past two years the US has … Continue reading →

Reading the Wikipedia entry on Arron Banks – the financier whose bankrolling of the Brexit campaign is now the subject of a criminal enquiry – I was struck by certain similarities between him and Donald Trump. (See  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arron_Banks.) I don’t … Continue reading →

The British (and Commonwealth) World War I dead whom we shall be remembering next Sunday – the centenary of the Armistice – fought and died for a number of reasons. Some of course had no choice in the matter, after … Continue reading →

I don’t think you can altogether blame people for their hostility to Islam, in view of the numerous horrific crimes committed in the name  of the Prophet, and incidents like the following: https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2018/nov/01/release-asia-bibi-pakistan-blasphemy-laws. Not her release, of course, but the terrible … Continue reading →

I don’t usually follow Doctor Who, but thought I would look into it now in order to see how its new female Dr Who is shaping up. I thought she was super. Last Sunday’s episode (series 11, episode 4) was up to … Continue reading →

Further to my recent post on ‘Immigration’ – https://bernardjporter.com/2018/10/15/immigration/ – another important distinction to draw in this context rests on whether the immigrants intend to merge into the societies they come in to, or whether – to put no finer point … Continue reading →

We academics like to believe that people do things for rational reasons. They may not be good reasons, or even remotely credible ones, but they will follow rationales  of their own. Someone has done something because….  His or her aim is…  … Continue reading →

Irrespective of the legality and morality of Peter Hain’s ‘outing’ of Sir Philip Green, under the protection of Parliamentary privilege, as an alleged sexual predator and racist, I’m delighted that he has  been outed, as he’s for a long time … Continue reading →

As a boy in the fifties I was brought up on The Goon Show. It was a weekly radio comedy show, deliberately nonsensical and surrealist. (For those of tenderer years, here’s one example: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VuVFFNvyUT8. There are many others – probably … Continue reading →

The great national split over Brexit represents a number of things – very few of which have any essential connexion with Europe. I pointed this out even before the actual Referendum: https://bernardjporter.com/2016/06/20/this-dreadful-referendum/. People used the vote to express their dissatisfaction … Continue reading →