English owes more than you know to William Shakespeare. Yes, that playwright from four hundred years ago now considered so unimportant by British educational authorities that not a…
Category: Philosophy
What were ‘The Roaring Twenties’?
The evocative phrase comes from America, of course, and refers to a period of unparalleled prosperity (for some). Industrial production doubled. American politicians had almost finished their self-imposed…
Marx, Lenin and the ‘lumpenproletariat’
These days they are the underclass, that vast army of uneducated, unemployable, often criminally inclined, very often obese, more than often drugged people of any age found in…
Let us above be politically correct . . .
Some years ago one of those correct persons who infest modern life pointed out to a bottling company that the label on one of their jams was politically…
Great War Commanders: the despised Haig
Despised he was by most historians, many journalists, more idealists, and especially pacifists, Douglas Haig was born in 1861. He served under Kitchener at the Battle of Omdurman…
Jean Monnet: turning in his grave?
Monnet (1888 – 1979) was, if not the progenitor, at least the clever uncle of the European Union. He was an able administrator and economist who devised and…
Ancient gods at these Olympics
I suppose we are about half way through the London Olympics of 2012 – sad for some, radiant news for others. I suppose I will be accused of…
Hiroshima and later
Hiroshima had a population of roughly 300,000 in 1945. It was a military base, port, and popular seaside resort in the western part of Honshu Island, Japan. The…
What is Isolationism?
Well, very soon we will know what it is. And I might add it is a great pity there is not more of it around. Loss of it…
The Blogger Kite
I have been forced to reach the conclusion that this planet is full of persons whose self-appointed task it is to find errors, large or small, in the…