When is a Queen not a Queen?
Camilla is the Princess of Wales, and when Prince Charles becomes King, Camilla will be Queen, unless parliament decides otherwise — which it won’t. Until now the royal family’s official line has been that...
Category: International Affairs
The BBC and Ethiopian famine relief: a few last words
At least, I hope they will be my last words on the subject. The Guardian today (9.xi.10) publishes in its ‘Response’ column my article about the BBC’s tardy apology to Bob Geldof and Band...
BBC apology to Band Aid over Ethiopian famine aid is not enough
Throughout today (4 November) the BBC is broadcasting an apology to Sir Bob Geldof and Band Aid for wrongly implying in a BBC World Service broadcast back in March that its allegations regarding the...
LibDem ministers accused of complicity in torture: it’s for the birds
A blog post entitled “Lib Dem Ministers Complicit in Torture” appeared yesterday. It concludes: I accuse Nick Clegg of complicity in torture. I am beginning to wonder whether the man has any connection to...
Labour’s record: time to expose six Tory myths
Predictably, whenever a Tory (or even a coalition-tipsy LibDem) sees a microphone or a television camera, he or she goes onto automatic pilot about the ‘economic mess’ they claim to have inherited from Labour. ...
The most promising result for Labour
The long leadership campaign is over and the most promising candidate from Labour’s point of view has won. The next significant events are next week’s elections by Labour MPs to the shadow cabinet and...
Tony Blair’s chapter on Kosovo: a travesty
I shan’t buy Tony Blair’s book: judging by the extracts I have read, it would do bad things to my blood pressure. But I have read the Kosovo chapter, which is about as mendacious...
Cameron’s 1940 double-fault: we were neither a junior partner nor ‘alone’
David Cameron dropped a memorable clanger in Washington, saying the UK was the “junior partner” in the World War II fight against Germany in 1940 – and then dropped another one trying to correct...
Diplomacy: the national interest or the ethical dimension?
In an article in The Hague Journal of Diplomacy I discuss the two traditional rival views of the function and purposes of diplomacy: the (often competitive) pursuit of the national interest, versus the (mainly...
Lockerbie resurgens: al-Megrahi, the myths and the unanswered questions
David Cameron’s visit to Washington this month (July 2010) collided with the resurrection by some American Senators of the controversy over the release in August 2009 on compassionate grounds by the Scottish government’s Justice...