These two tongue-twisters used not only to twist tongues, but eject furious spittle from the pursed mouth of European statesmen and politicians. The problem is not only of…
Category: EU History
The Treaty of Trianon (1920) and its effect on Hungary
This treaty is another good example of the collateral damage to be expected when states join in wars with the express intention of gaining territory, though the war…
Appeasement
A bit of a dirty word since 1938 but it shouldn’t be. There is enough appeasement going on now over the disgusting situation in Syria to fill the…
Missing or misdirected: $13,000 million for Haiti
Only two years after the catastrophic earthquake that almost destroyed the island of Haiti, killing many (200,000 is one estimate) and leaving more homeless, it would not…
Margaret Thatcher, the ‘Iron Lady’
Margaret Hilda Thatcher was born in 1925 in Lincolnshire, the daughter of the owner of a small grocer’s shop. She was a scholarship girl, brainy and…
Metternich
Of all the great statesmen and diplomats whose many different names have managed to confuse so many history students in the last century or two, this one is…
The first European Community (failed)
The EEC as we know it today bears no resemblance to this first attempt, but at least enough initiative was shown by its inventors to make it last…
SPAIN today: a prediction and some questions
Morning, noon and night it is predicted by the Spanish news programmes that Mariano Rajoy may resign and take his Popular Party with him. The reason, we are…
SPAIN: from black comedy to farce
Not even the Monty Python team could have invented the present situation in the democracy with a monarchy, Parliament, and civilized population called Spain. The Marx Brothers…
The Fuggers
Now before the bloodhounds of Google get hot about the collar and assume I am using a form of Anglo-Saxon four-letter-word in the plural, give me time to…