It is rare to read two articles on opposite pages of the same journal that, with equal lucidity, set out opposite views on the same issue. The journal in question was The Spectator (16 March). The journalists were the novelist Lionel Shriver and the commentator Douglas Murray. The topic was whether British soldiers should be prosecuted for their part in Bloody Sunday. Both pieces were written shortly before the decision to prosecute one former soldier was announced. Continue reading
Month: March 2019
In defence of Theresa May
Let’s get a few things straight. The Government has not lost control of the Brexit process; it never had control. The Prime Minister is not in disarray; Parliament is. The present crisis is not the fault of Theresa May; it is the fault of Members of Parliament. MPs are not noble, disinterested people, trying to serve the national interest; they are mainly a group of vindictive egotists who together are doing everything they can to trash the country’s reputation and to blame it on her. Continue reading
Going round in circles
When in France, we are visited each autumn by an invasion of green scutal beetles, generally known as stink bugs, although ours don’t stink. They fly around the room like overloaded transport planes, lurk in the window frames and settle on ledges. One of their favourite tricks is to perch on the rim of a lampshade. The bulb throws a giant silhouette on to the ceiling that makes the bugs look like something from a horror movie. Continue reading
Whatever
Sometime towards the end of the second series of the American version of House of Cards, Frank Underwood still hadn’t got his come-uppance and there were rumours that Netflix was planning a third series. We had invested a lot of time in this drama and had to decide whether to plough on through another 13 episodes (many more than that, as it turned out) or give up on the whole thing. We gave up. Continue reading
Olé Ole
There has always been a school of management thought that says you get the best out of people through fear. Make them scared of you. Make them feel they’re not good enough. Bully them. Take for granted what they do well. Magnify and publicise their mistakes. Make them feel their job’s on the line every day. And, once in a while, fire one of them pour encourager les autres. Continue reading
Jim Powell 