Actually, the existence of any such imperial ambitions is generally denied, even though the US has been an expansionist power almost since its inception. The inter-war years of “isolationism” are the great exception, not the natural way of things. At least not in Washington. Still, we are where we are. Two recent columns, by Thomas
Iain Martin has an excellent post on Philip Blond and his Red Tory project. But it occurs to me that Mr Blond could have more concisely explained Red Toryism if he’d simply played Merle Haggard’s Are the Good Times Really Over? True, Merle puts an American spin on matters, but the basic idea seems broadly
Dear Alex, Happy St Andrew’s Day! Today you publish your mildly-awaited plans for a referendum on Scottish Independence. Alas, unless the Liberal Democrats can be persuaded to endorse the bill, there’s little prospect of any such referendum actually happening. Such are the traumas of minority government. Of course, you find yourself trapped: if the SNP
Many thanks to Christopher Snowden for alerting me to this little piece by Euan Ferguson in the Observer today. It begins with this photograph: Photo: Nikola Solic/Reuters As Euan says, only one small detail gives this photo any glamour at all: A whirl of tutus in a Zagreb cafe-bar during a break in ballet rehearsals:
So, now that the autumn internationals have been completed, we can assess who’s best advanced their preparations for the Six Nations this spring and, longer-term, the next World Cup which, while still distant, is now within sight. In descending order, then, of satisfaction (not quite the same as achievement), the rankings might go something like
At this time of year and with Christmas all but upon us Mr Haggard offers a rare but necessary perspective on all this Christmas Cheer. If we make it through December,..
The least surprising thing about the latest revelations of the Irish Catholic Church’s complicity in thousands of cases of horrific child abuse is that almost none of it is surprising at all. Shocking, yes, but not surprising. Even those of us with an appropriately cynical view of the Chuch, mind you, can only marvel at
Ochone, ochone! The plight of the Scottish Tories has been receiving attention again this week. As Pete pointed out, the latest Tartan poll puts the Tories at just 18% north of the Tweed. This means, 12 years on from the 1997 disaster, that, in Iain Martin’s words, “They’re getting absolutely nowhere, slowly.” True. In 1979,
I’ve had Wilkie Collins on my To Read list for, well, for years now. Somehow it’s never happened. And with a dozen or so still-not-finished books at the moment it would be foolish to add another to that menacing pile. On the other hand, it’s 150 years since The Woman in White was first published
So Philip Blond’s new think tank ResPublica (that’s how it’s spelt, leaving one to wonder whether it’s actually a pretentious electricity company or something) and his “Red Toryism” is this week’s non-Iraq, must-talk-about political gizmo. And my, what an odd beast it is. Blond’s speech on Thursday was a strange thing indeed. Part of the
Sasha Obama, the daughter of U.S. President Barack Obama, looks at a turkey named ‘Courage’ during an event to pardon the 20-week-old and 45-pound turkey at the White House November 25, 2009 in Washington, DC. The Presidential pardon of a turkey has been a long time Thanksgiving tradition that dates back to the Harry Truman
Perhaps there’s more to this than meets the eye, but on the face of it the Obama administration has not only broken a promise made to Britain but reneged upon a vital agreement that would have given the UK full “operational sovereignty” over the new F-35 Joint Strike Fighters we’re supposed to be buying for
Test cricket in crisis! Again! That’s the headline you could draw from an MCC survey that finds just 7% of Indian cricket fans prefer Test cricket to other, lesser, forms of the game. On the face of it this is indeed a troubling , dispiriting, finding. The survey, which was conducted by TNS Sport, sought,
Nazroo, a mahout, poses for a portrait while taking his elephant, Rajan, out for a swim in front of Radha Nagar Beach in Havelock, Andaman Islands. Rajan is one of the few elephants in Havelock that can swim, so when he is not dragging timber in the forest he is used as a tourist attraction.
So Barack Obama’s approval rating in Iowa has slipped below 50%. Indeed, he receives negative ratings from Iowans in every area except foreign policy. So much for all that Hope and Change, eh? Well, not quite. As a savvy Democratic lobbyist emails: More and more, the overlays between Obama and Reagan seem to match. Succeeding
From a letter written by the American novelist F. Marion Crawford, on August 23, 1896: The old fashioned novel is really dead, and nothing can revive it nor make anybody care for it again. What is to follow it?…A clever German who is here suggested to me last night that the literature of the future
A reader writes to complain that I haven’t written anything about “Climategate” (please, can we stop the use of the suffix “gate”?). Well, the main reason I haven’t is that climate change is even more crushingly tedious than health policy, the European Union or, for that matter, just about anything else. Worse, the bad faith
Can this really be true? Apparently and alas unsuprisingly the answer seems to be yes: Police are routinely arresting people simply to record their DNA profiles on the national database, according to a report published today… The revelations will fuel the debate about the DNA database, the world’s largest. They are included in a report
Apparently it’s a possibility. At the very least such a run would help Dobbs sell a few more books. Whether a Perot-like third party anti-immigration, anti-globalisation, anti-Wall Street crusade will be as appealing in 2012 as it seems right now must be a matter that’s open for discussion. Perot wouldn’t have been nearly so effective
Brother Liddle asks “Why is it unravelling for Dave?” and, while this may be a mild exaggeration, it’s true that, in as much as he can ever look jaunty, there’s a spring in Gordon’s step right now. Perhaps, Labourites dare to dream, the worst is over? Maybe. One poll showing the Tory lead cut to