Category Archives: Uncategorized

I travelled to Manchester to fly to Stockholm on Friday, thanking my good luck that I’d have missed the Gatwick chaos. It turned out that I didn’t, entirely. My flight was three hours late, having been held up by the … Continue reading →

Excellent letter in yesterday’s Washington Post: Letters to the Editor December 19 at 5:26 PM In his Dec. 16 Sunday Opinion essay, “Britain can’t thrive without Brexit,” Henry Olsen argued that the European Union “holds Britain in contempt.” Mr. Olsen’s … Continue reading →

Every so often in European history there comes a ‘Year of Revolutions’, when progressive insurrections break out in several nations at once. 1848 was one such; 1917 another; 1968 a third – although that one has, I think, been rather … Continue reading →

For those who remember the ‘Wilson Plot’ – that is, the anti-(Harold) Wilson plot of the 1960s and ’70s – or have read about the ‘Zinoviev Letter’ affair of 1924, the following, from the summer of 2017, may set their … Continue reading →

When I was a small child many years ago, and I wanted to do something foolish and dangerous, one common response from the adults was: ‘let him do it. It’s the only way he’ll learn’. How many children got electrocuted/drowned/choked/poisoned/abducted … Continue reading →

I’m afraid I’m not competent to make any judgment on the current shenanigans in the House of Commons, and among the Tory party, over Theresa May and her Brexit plans; let alone to predict the outcome. I doubt whether any … Continue reading →

Bloody Hell. Isn’t it patently OBVIOUS that underlying all these cris de coeur – the yellowjackets, Trumpeters, Ukippery and the rest – is the failure of late-stage unrestrained capitalism in all the countries affected? But of course if we point this … Continue reading →

I thought the age of oratory was over. Our present leaders, after all, are not very good at it: May endlessly repeating the same tired mantra – ‘strong and stable’, ‘will of the people’, ‘Brexit means Brexit’ and so on … Continue reading →

Found on Facebook: a highly persuasive letter to her MP by an expert in these matters – an international election observer, no less.

I’ve interrupted my blogging recently for more urgent projects. The latest is a short piece Kajsa and I have been asked to write for the LRB about Swedish reactions to our Brexit shenanigans. We’ve not got round to that yet. (Any … Continue reading →