There is a feeling of government by disconnection creeping over the country. It is not the detail or the individual policies. It is down to two issues. Europe and the economy. The two Es. Europe is going through transformation pangs, self inflicted economic issues and problems of integration. Not one of these is within the […]
Only one thing is for certain about David Cameron’s speech. He would never have made it at this time but for the divisions in his own party. Everything else is unclear. What changes does he actually want? Will the other members agree to real negotiations or just offer a fig leaf to mask Cameron’s difficulties. […]
The drama of life and death taking place in the Algerian desert has dominated the news and the government over the last few days. Britons have died, perhaps fewer than feared, but too many none the less. These victims were not military personnel, but civilian oil workers. Each death leaves a family shattered. It is […]
The scenes of hundreds of people lying on the floor trying to rest after hours of delay to their flights because of snow are truly shocking. In a world shrunk by air travel it is simply unacceptable that this appalling confusion is the repeated consequence of a snowfall in the London area. This was not […]
Cameron’s much delayed, over spun and partially leaked speech on Britain and the EU has been delayed as the nation waits in anxiety for bad, perhaps very bad, news from Algeria. Although this is right and proper, the unavoidable postponement can only feed mounting uncertainty about the future direction of the UK economy. It would […]
From Australia The position of the Church of England, after the latest announcement that clergy in civil partnerships can become bishops if they promise to be celibate, is literally preposterous. Having made a complete fool of itself over women bishops, it now reveals itself, yet again, to be an organisation seriously depraved by an obsession with […]
From Australia The headlong dash to the fiscal cliff has shuddered to a messy compromise at the very edge. America’s dysfunctional system of federal government has managed to cobble together a deal which has brought relief to the markets. Politicians of all sides preen themselves for behaving like statesmen and women in the national interest. But what […]