1) Greeting of your guests is always important. When welcoming delegates to the United States, saying ” Welcome to the United States of America” is a perfectly respectable way to go about it. But make sure you are actually IN … Continue reading →

I missed the launch yesterday of another new political blog, courtesy of Blogcritics. This looks like it could well be worth following as a handy aggregate of a number of different perspectives on the US political scene. If anyone knows … Continue reading →

Some good points raised by A Gentleman’s Commonplace about the recent European Ryder Cup victory: “There is, after all, nothing like a common enemy… to bring Europeans together and for once the UK can join the party.” As anyone in … Continue reading →

As it’s conference season and all, it’s only proper to have a looksee. This blog is mostly focussing on foreign affairs, but for a change, a bit of UK domestic policy – specifically, the dole. On coming to power, Labour … Continue reading →

Hurrah! Everyone’s favourite British politician starts his own blog, and all thanks to the sterling efforts of Manic. Here it is, the long-awaited Boris Johnson.com! Hurrah! Let’s keep our fingers crossed he finds the time to stick with it.

Gary Younge writes an interesting piece in the Guardian on the tendency of America and others to excuse irrational behaviour through claiming the moral high ground of victimisation. It seems as though other people are beginning to feel the same … Continue reading →

The rather bitter-sounding book by Derek Scott, one of Tony Blair’s former advisors, is getting a lot of coverage at the moment. A section was extracted yesterday in the eurosceptic Sunday Times, which (amongst the vitriol, speculation and attempts to … Continue reading →

It was basically complaining at my rather off-hand dismissal of American fears of and reactions to terrorism. (For the full comment, which is reasonably argued, and should really be read in full before reading this post, see here.) I�m sorry … Continue reading →

It has to be said, Manic has a great talent for getting things spot on: 1. The War on Terror is a lie that will not protect you from terrorists 2. The War on Terror is being used to curb … Continue reading →

Yesterday’s Daily Mail was amusing, but has got some people pissed off. It’s a load of overblown bollocks, that’s for sure. But one thing this whole business has done is turn me from loosely pro-hunt (I grew up in the … Continue reading →

Interesting piece in the New York Times about the US Embassy in London (here registration required). Well, I say interesting, but for anyone who’s had the misfortune of wandering through Grosvenor Square at any point in the last three years … Continue reading →

Yay for Sir Patrick Cormack! OK, I’ll admit here I’m biased as I used to work for the man, like him personally and still meet him for a drink on a semi-regular basis, but top work! “By this time, and … Continue reading →

According to Fareed Zakaria (the editor of Newsweek International, but writing in Foreign Policy), Europe is “the only other player with the resources and tradition to play a global role… U.S. and European goals on most issues are quite similar. … Continue reading →

Looks like the European Constitution debates are going to continue to hot up. The upcoming Labour conference could see a clash between the pro and anti camps within the party come into the open. This could be a good thing, … Continue reading →