Politics

It is commonplace to accuse politicians of being out of touch. There is often some truth in the charge, and our elected representatives take it on the chin. One of the least likely politicians to face this charge has always been John Healey: the defence secretary has been one of the most sensible and pragmatic ministers in Sir Keir Starmer’s cabinet – not a high bar, admittedly. And yet there are signs that he has succumbed to the Ministry of Defence’s corrosive habit of dealing with the world as it wants it to be, not as it is. Our armed forces are in no position to deploy significant numbers of

The 1919 Versailles peace conference that followed the end of the first world war became the most famous, or notorious, diplomatic negotiation in history. Much influenced by John Maynard Keynes, an impassioned sympathiser for the German predicament, it was branded for the rest of the twentieth century as a failure, the injustice of which bore heavy responsibility for the rise of Hitler. Scholarly historical opinion about Versailles has moved MacMillan’s way, since the publication of Peacemakers Then, in 2001, along came Canadian historian Margaret MacMillan, comparatively unknown outside the academic world, and her book Peacemakers. This was not only a commanding narrative of what took place in Paris during the

Throughout her memoir, Nicola Sturgeon emphasises her achievement in becoming the first female first minister of Scotland. While that achievement should not be underestimated, I’m sure I’m not the only woman who wishes she made a better job of it.   In her political afterlife, as in her political life, she evades real scrutiny It’s not just her determined blind spot on the implications of self-identification for women’s rights which emerges from this memoir, but also the fact that her much trumpeted support for women, including those under attack in the public forum, seems not to extend to those who dare to disagree with her.   There is widespread recognition