Note: This is the text of a despatch to the then Foreign & Commonwealth Secretary, Douglas Hurd, which I sent in January 1991 shortly before the end of my posting as British High Commissioner...
I had been almost persuaded by the relentless drum-beat of Guardian editorials and columns that Gordon Brown is finished and should step down now, if only so as not to prolong the party’s and...
It’s difficult to explain the sudden flowering of interest in constitutional reform. It apparently arises out of the general panic in the Westminster village about public anger and contempt over the abuse of (some)...
I have expressed earlier my conviction that it will turn out to be a disaster for Britain if the Tories, having won the general election in a few months’ time, carry out their threat...
Unlike most media commentators, with their vested interest in encouraging leaks by civil servants who betray their duty of confidentiality and loyalty to the elected ministers for whom they work, I have very little...
One of the strongest of many reasons for not voting Conservative in the European Parliament elections on 4 June or, especially, in the impending general election is the Tory threat to hold a referendum...
J and I are just back from a three-day short break in Bruges. Our Bruges pictures are on Flickr at — http://www.flickr.com/photos/brianlb/sets/72157618576894874/. If that doesn’t load, click http://bit.ly/Q4x6v instead. To view the pictures in...
Psssst! Heard the one about the Frenchman, the German and the Portugoose…? Or did someone mention Broon?
Some of us on the eastern side of the great ditch have been bemused by what appears to be a certain ambiguity in American attitudes to torture. Waterboarding and other ‘harsh’ interrogation techniques had...
‘Diplomatic Superstar’ is how a friend described Nicko Henderson in e-mailing to me the website addresses of the obituaries in the Times and the Daily Telegraph of Sir Nicholas Henderson, GCMG KCVO, who died...