Category Archives: British politics

The things that Telegraph readers say

Posted on May 16, 2008 by acb

Perhaps by coincidence, Damian Thompson was very quiet for a couple of months after I wrote about him reproducing a neo-nazi propaganda story on his Daily Telegraph blog, though he did ring up to say he would never speak to … Continue reading →

Posted in British politics, Journalism, War | 6 Comments

Against Eric Hobsbawm

Posted on May 15, 2008 by acb

It is a dangerous thing to disagree with Steven Poole, but I think his defence of Hobsbawm’s Stalinist account of Eastern European history is just plain wrong. Hobsbawm wrote, in a lecture for Amnesty, Since the life-and-death struggle of the … Continue reading →

Posted in British politics | 6 Comments

Robert Harris’s “Ghost”

Posted on May 10, 2008 by acb

I read this last night in one gulp, which shows the essential virtue of his writing. The story, for American readers, concerns Adam Lang, a Labour ex-prime minister who is holed up in Martha’s Vineyard with his wife and dwindling … Continue reading →

Posted in British politics, Literature | 3 Comments

The FT is very gloomy

Posted on February 28, 2008 by acb

Belated news, but hardly out of date: the FT on Monday had a remarkably pessimistic commentary on its op-ed page by Wolfgang Münchau, saying, in essence, that the credit crunch will be even nastier in the UK than in the … Continue reading → Continue reading →

Posted in British politics | Comments Off on The FT is very gloomy

Surveillance: wtf?

Posted on January 29, 2008 by acb

The _Telegraph_ reports today that there are more than a thousand phone-tapping applications made (and granted) every day in Britain. The paper is particularly worked up because it is not just the intelligence services and the police but local councils … Continue reading → Continue reading →

Posted in British politics | 3 Comments

Sell all your bank shares

Posted on December 7, 2007 by acb

A terrifying glimpse into the US mortgage market, via Rafe Coburn, from which it emerges that until about six months ago, you could borrow enough to buy a house valued at a million dollars on a household income of _less … Continue reading →

Posted in British politics, USA | 4 Comments

More on “The Islamist”

Posted on June 6, 2007 by acb

Two reviews of this book have cropped up this week: there is a “very sympathetic”:http://www.literaryreview.co.uk/gray_06_07.html one from John Gray in the _Literary Review._ I think his conclusion is absolutely the right one — that the term for this stuff ought … Continue reading → Continue reading →

Posted in British politics, God, War | Comments Off on More on “The Islamist”

Blair’s real legacy

Posted on May 13, 2007 by acb

I was talking the other night to a defence intellectual: I mean an ex army officer who now lectures at a college for real ones. He’s an old, not close, friend, and was pretty drunk as well, so I have … Continue reading → Continue reading →

Posted in British politics, War | 2 Comments

A very brief thought

Posted on April 8, 2007 by acb

Parked here for later use (I have to write and record a half-hour radio programme on children’s happiness by Wednesday afternoon; it will be Thursday evening’s “Analysis”:http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/programmes/analysis/default.stm for anyone who is interested.) There are two huge problems facing Europe, and … Continue reading → Continue reading →

Posted in British politics | 2 Comments

Mechanical mindlesness.

Posted on April 1, 2007 by acb

There is of course a more sinister interpretation of the kind of drivel referenced in “the post before this.”:http://www.thewormbook.com/helmintholog/archives/2007/03/30/a_meeting_of_mi.html#001993 The abstract nouns — framework, integration, hallmark, strategy, etc. — may not all mean %(loony)meetings% or may not just mean that. … Continue reading → Continue reading →

Posted in British politics | 3 Comments