I have especially enjoyed two recent articles in the New Statesman and want to share my enjoyment with Ephems readers. It’s invidious of course to pick out two articles from among so many good...
The Lords’ refusal yesterday evening (26.10.2015) to approve the government’s statutory instrument incorporating cuts to tax credits was gloriously right as to the substance, but catastrophically wrong constitutionally. Part of the price paid for...
Jeremy Corbyn has now answered at least two radio or television interviewers, who asked him whether as prime minister he would ever press the nuclear button, with the fatal word: No. This is surely...
On 20 September 2015 the Observer newspaper published a front page report expressing pained surprise at the revelation that the UK Security Service has been paying informers “to spy” on Muslims suspected of involvement...
According to today’s Guardian, the statesman and Nobel peace prize winner Martti Ahtisaari has revealed what looks like a spectacular failure in Washington, London and Paris to respond to a Russian proposal in 2012...
In case you have a vote for the Labour party leadership election and haven’t yet voted, here, in no particular order, is an objective check-list of twelve ideal characteristics and qualities for an effective,...
It’s not true, although widely thought to be obvious, that when older people work longer before retirement they are adding to youth unemployment, or that immigrants take away jobs from native Brits. The first...
Things which everyone knows but which ain’t so: that in 2013 the House of Commons voted against UK participation in the bombing of Syria in response to Assad’s alleged use of chemical weapons against...
This is the final commercial for my recent book, What Diplomats Do: The Life and Work of Diplomats, published last year and available to UK readers at a substantial discount which (sadly) expires at...
The Greek settlement, or perhaps better the eurozone’s Diktat, is outrageous. It reflects such an intrusive, dictatorial, dirigiste, centralising mindset on the part of those in the control room of the EU (not just...