21st Century
I See No Ships?
The quote ‘I see no ships’ is attributed to Admiral John Jervis during the Battle of Cape St Vincent in 1797. Before giving Johnny Spaniard a black eye off the Algarve, legend has it that, [more…]
21st Century
21st Century
The Sharika Plan, Part Two
Kenya hosts the largest U.S. embassy in sub-Saharan Africa and has regularly ranked among the top recipients of U.S. foreign aid globally, a majority of it focused on health programs. Under the first Trump Administration, [more…]
21st Century
The Shirika Plan
The Shirika Plan aims to achieve the socioeconomic integration of refugees into host communities by converting refugee camps into integrated settlements. Integrating refugees and asylum seekers into host communities remains a major challenge for Kenya [more…]
20th Century
Labour’s bad boys – the intro
A series on Labour’s bad boys has been suggested. At first sight it seemed akin to climbing Everest, there are just so many but on reflection, as one of the current phrases goes, it is [more…]
19th Century
Today’s 200th Anniversary of The Railway
This weekend sees the 200th anniversary of railways – or at least of the first steam locomotive-hauled passenger service, which took place on the Stockton to Darlington railway 200 years ago today (27th September). On [more…]
19th Century
Peter Mandelson – Something In The Genes?
Speaking at the launch of his memoir The Third Man, Life at The Heart of New Labour, which he only finished writing two weeks earlier, Peter Mandelson said, ‘It was a high wire act. Now [more…]
21st Century
A View (Some Miles Away) From The Greenhouse; We’re All “Far-Right” Now.
Recently I had occasion to visit the observatory at Langdale, a torturous ninety minute drive from home, along some of the very worst roads in Cumbria. It was almost all for naught, although the clouds [more…]
19th Century
The Shock of The Modern
Besides excitement and trauma, might the shock of the new also provide a synapse re-ordering adrenaline burst that remodels the brain? As a little boy the make-believe near-future modernist world of Thunderbirds (and the like) [more…]
20th Century
The Only One in The World?
I’m a great believer that surges of adrenaline reshape the connections in the brain in the way a deluge of flood water might reshape a river valley. You are not the same person after an [more…]