One of the sadder features of the past 50 years has been the decline of the United Nations to a status of virtual irrelevance. Many of its subsidiary branches do vital and valuable work, but the General Assembly contributes little to the world, unable to agree on anything. It has always promised more than it has been able to deliver. Now, it doesn’t even promise very much. Continue reading
Opinion
No iron in Steel
I like some politicians and dislike others. So do we all. These feelings exist independently of whether we agree with them or not. I have disliked politicians with whom I broadly agree and vice versa. One politician I have never liked is David Steel. Now I feel compelled to consider his stupefying conduct over the late Cyril Smith. Continue reading
Serving under a single standard
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
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
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
Defective vision
At last! A week in politics that has not been entirely about the Brexit negotiations. Although, in fact, it largely has, but in a different way. Eleven (at the time of writing) defectors have decamped to the untenanted centre ground of British politics. The final collapse of the two main parties is under way. Or not, as the case may be. Continue reading
Silver screens and white lies
It is a truth universally acknowledged that we baby-boomers have had a pretty good time of it. Prosperity. The chance of buying our own house. No wars to fight. Free university education. Cheap travel. Cures for cancer and Parkinson’s. Well, not quite yet, but I expect they’ll have been found just when we need them. And we’ll be dead before the planet has been destroyed. What a good time to have been alive. Continue reading
Misérables memoirs
Much of the final episode of the BBC adaptation of Les Misérables featured our hero wading chest-deep through raw sewage, with a barely supportable burden upon his shoulders. This felt an appropriate metaphor for the entire series. Continue reading
A Brexit miscellany
Glossary of terms
No Deal – A policy by which we expect to get a better trade agreement with the EU by paying them nothing than we could have got by paying £39 billion. Continue reading
Jim Powell 