Sometimes, it seems as though, a country, like a person, can receive a message or a warning in the shape of an event that shows up a vulnerability. Whether one considers such a wake up call Divine providence or not, it can be instructive nevertheless. The electric substation fire at Heathrow is in that category. Irrespective of blame (the Russians,...
The Conservative Party is still in crisis despite the deep unpopularity of the relatively new Starmer-led Government and of himself and some of his chief ministers. The Opposition should be riding high and scoring points easily, but such was the deep disenchantment with the last Conservative government that led to loyal party members and activists ...
The mortar is the global south. Ironically for all its anti-colonialist rhetoric and claim to speak for the global south, an empire ('of free trade' at least) appears to be under construction, or an unequal association with eventually its own currency and foreign policy. Of particular concern is the presence of the China, Russia, Iran axis at the t...
At a meeting on 12th November 2024 Suella Braverman had a Discussion with Frank Millard: this is a transcript. FM =Frank Millard SB Suella Braverman. FM: Thank you very much for your time Suella, it's our pleasure to be interviewing you. SB: Thank you for having me and for hosting this. It's great to be with friends and thank you for all the work y...
We are in the second stage of Blair reforms. The dark shadow of the former PM hangs over the new Labour administration. This Blairite legacy was always about 'constitutional reform', Supreme Court, devolved powers and field sports were their aspiration. It was something to excite the Labour membership's turgid mentality. Now in 2024 with a big Comm...
The Conservative Party has just suffered one of the worst general election defeats in its history following on from one of its greatest general election successes in 2019. Clearly something went wrong. The reason for one was the same for the other, Brexit and its benefits such as the security of our borders. Now, more than ever, there is a need to ...
The Conservative Party has not had much luck in choosing leaders. The first to be elected by ballot, rather than appointed, was Edward Heath and we can debate how successful that choice was for national sovereignty or otherwise another time. The most recent term of Conservative government contains the stream of ineffective leaders the Party did not...
"I beg your pardon," they never promised us a rose garden, but they did. The new Labour government is unravelling and blaming it on everyone but themselves, but mostly on the last government, the members of which seem strangely silent for an Opposition whose job it is to oppose. 'Now is the time for all good men to come to the aid of the party'. Th...
The candidates for the Conservative leadership have been announced and are each hoping to be in the final two to be voted on by the membership. Why the Parliamentary Party ultimately get to restrict that choice is neither here nor there. It was in comparatively recent history that they themselves were not given that choice, but the leader was appoi...
So, now we have "change", whatever that means (it isn't clear); the Labour version of that word (whatever that is) allied with the Lib-Dem version, but certainly not Reform's meaning of the word. Meanwhile, the Conservative Party has split itself to oblivion. The parliamentarians and wider party were split as well, with the latter's wishes as to le...
Sir Keir Starmer's plans relating to the UK's future relationship with the EU are unclear, but then again, his ever-shifting image and (apparent) political position (embracing Corbynism and Blairism), in an attempt to appeal to both Left and Right, Middle and Working class, the old red wall and staunchly pro-EU constituencies, does rather confuse e...
Back in 1997 I walked the streets locally and knocked on doors with the Conservative candidate in what was regarded as a safe constituency. It was a thankless task, but a worthy one and in spite of a cold response and some derision he was elected with a respectable majority. I remember standing outside a polling station as a Labour van went by blar...
"Finished", "stuffed", "toast" . These have been the words and worse that many otherwise loyal Conservatives used about their own party recently. However, now that the election has been called in spite of such pessimism, there is hope for the beleaguered Tories.: A week is a long time in politics, said Harold Wilson, so how much longer a...
We live in a world increasingly beset with wars and rumours of wars, proxy wars and proxy-proxy wars. However, all forest fires begin with a spark or sparks and everything has a context. An unwillingness or inability to understand context is one of the ills of modern life. The unprovoked invasion of Ukraine by Russia early in 2022 has a context tha...
Prince William was recently reported (wrongly as it turns out) as wanting his eventual reign to break with the Church of England, which led to questions as to whether that was desirable or even possible while retaining the monarchy itself. Now, sources claim that His Royal Highness will do no such thing, but that he does not share the dee...
Successful American and British military action against Houthi targets in Yemen may not achieve positive results without negative consequences. There are four seas that rule the supply chain world - the Caspian and its link to the Black Sea with its waterway to the Mediterranean with its canal to the Red Sea. This is a lot more than grain and oil b...
AI is a direct threat to formerly trustworthy and secure sources of information, image and data. In a recent open letter, AI-expert signatories of which included Elon Musk urged a pause in AI training to reflect and take stock. "AI research and development should be refocused on making today's powerful, state-of-the-art systems more accurate,...
Far from being located in the sky, cloud data centres are very large and earthbound with real effects on energy security There are differing statistics on the amount of electricity drained by data centres globally, but it is substantial and as cloud expands to and within developing nations, it will increase. There were already around 3.6 bill...
"We don't want to fight, but by jingo if we do…" was the music hall song from which the word jingoism originated. John Hobson, in his Psychology of Jingoism of (1901), referred to music halls of stirring up the crowds in favour of war, but that those who shouted loudest had no intention of fighting themselves. Social media is the modern equivalent ...
The Ukraine war drags on. It nearly ended in 2022, but the adversaries thought better of anything so untidy as a peace treaty. Since then, thousands of lives have been lost in an internecine struggle where intransigence has become policy and revenge a war aim. Montgomery cautioned the USA in the 1960s that its war in Vietnam was "insane" because it...
Are Israel and the West walking into a trap? In this increasingly binary, digital and divided world people are encouraged to take sides on almost anything and respond to events, people and actions emotionally rather than objectively. Israel's response to unspeakable acts of terror against its civilians has resulted in death and injury to women, chi...
.What used to be East and West is now the global North and South in a new geopolitical dichotomy. While not strictly ideologically divided, the ascendancy of (southern) BRICS members being largely economic, they and the whole Global South are increasingly defined politically according to their perceived history. Much is spoken about multipolarity b...
The word 'elites' has come to mean a shorthand for 'the powers that be', which may include or be separate from and above one's elected representatives including international regulators that dictate to and restrict governments. This comprising an embryonic world government for whom and for which no one voted. According to various conspiracy theorie...
The Conservative Party killed the golden goose and got a lame duck. The wolves (now blooded) circle… A former prime minister has not only been pushed from office, but chased out of Parliament as well. Did that happen to Neville Chamberlain? Did it happen to Edward Heath? These days, however, former leaders need to be extinguished as well as removed...
Our undoubted king has been anointed, crowned, walked through the Abbey accompanied by his queen, preceded by a priestess sword bearer - the lady of the lake. So far, so good. Britain was almost united again as it is sometimes and usually on a royal occasion, understanding implicitly that our monarch (but not their wider family) best represent...
Three seas and two waterways comprise what is arguably the most important geopolitical hub on the planet. The Black Sea, Mediterranean and Red Sea are joined by the Bosporus and the Suez Canal as a vital trade and security crossroads connecting Europe with the MENA countries and Asia. During the Cold War the Black Sea was dominated by the War...
Is there a need for a rethink of the 21st century direction of travel of globalisation, the concept of a global village, 4IR, communitarianism and supranationalism, as conceived at the end of the previous century? Vulnerabilities of scale The devastating impact of the pandemic on economics, trade, logistics and the global supply chain, plus the imp...
Boris has offered his heart-felt apology to the nation for inadvertently breaking lockdown rules, for which he has been fined, but that is not enough for his political enemies unsurprisingly. Wednesday's PMQs were marked by a tiresome repetition by Opposition MPs demanding the resignation of the Prime Minister, using up precious parliamentary time ...
After the 2016 referendum, when did people stop just holding a firm or ambiguous position in a debate and become formed into parties? Whereas people were expected to move forward for the common good, following the result, they continued to believe their 'side' was for the common good and the other 'side' the opposite. As a consequence, some of thos...
When all the numbers flipped noisily to zeros, at midnight 1999/2000, something happened away from the celebrations – plotted, prepared and planned. This was not the building of a New Jerusalem, but a distillation of chaos as a monstrous assembly of competing flawed visions, social experiments and technological expectations manifested as a darkness...
The internet is full of conspiracy theories about the pandemic and blame aimed at shadowy elites, bankers, secret societies, national leaders and so on, all based on the political prejudices of those formulating or sharing the theories as if fact. These are a not very amusing distraction from lockdown, pictures of kittens, today's lunch, or even po...
"I wish it need not have happened in my time," said Frodo. "So do I," said Gandalf, "and so do all who live to see such times. But that is not for them to decide. All we have to decide is what to do with the time that is given us." JRR Tolkien. Although the bunting is out for Brexit in the wake of a resounding victory of a Conservative Government, ...
The strength of democracy is that no one ideology will ever triumph over the others. Its weakness is that they all retain that ambition Britain seems to have gone insane, or at least (anti-)social media has. Politics dominates, but not rational political discussion. Legitimate news media has been swept aside by online propaganda rags describing the...
