Arts
The Clairvoyant
Perhaps the one aspiration all parties bar the Greens hold is to try to engineer some growth into the economy. Most of the blame attaches to the Treasury but the country seems unable to accomplish [more…]
Bergen
Elections
Waking Ned?
The commentariat believe that the political tectonic plates are moving. Certainly, Sir Keir Starmer seems beleaguered, unhappy and so far away from control that historians will marvel that the largest parliamentary majority in Labour history [more…]
Book Review
Book Review: “Politics on the Edge” by Rory Stewart
Like many on this blog, I’ve been in awe of AWS in his watching and reporting of Question Time each week so that we didn’t have to, and Powers’ indefatigable commentary each morning of GMB, [more…]
19th Century
Ma, Ma, where’s my Pa?
I suspect that all Puffins are fervently hoping that the US Presidential Election will result in the return of the Donald to the White House. If this happens, it will be an unusual but not [more…]
Biography
The Political Civil Servant
On one of AWS’s recent informative pieces on Scotland, he mentioned Waverley Station in Edinburgh and I mentioned in the comments (which nobody reads) that perhaps the most versatile civil servant ever, John Anderson, took [more…]
Drinking
A nice drop of Portuguese red…
For years we’ve enjoyed our annual holidays in Portugal and I have acquired a “taste” for the local red wine which is not a particularly great seller in the UK. I thought that I’d write [more…]
Politics
Forty Years On
Forty Years On is the name of a play by Alan Bennett based on the title to the Harrow School Song. This year is forty years since the start of the Great Miners’ Strike and [more…]
19th Century
Not The Worst President
“History shall be kind to me for I shall write it” wrote Sir Winston Churchill at the end of the Second World War. He had previously written a six volume history of the First World [more…]
Arts
The Eternal Fireman
Years ago, the late Sir Robin Day scored such a direct hit on Mrs Thatcher’s Defence Secretary, John Nott, that he threw away his microphone and stormed off the set in mid interview after Sir [more…]