Category: Politics

Lords and Ladies

An attempt is being made to slow the rate at which hereditary titles become extinct; no I don’t know why either. Lord Trefgarne has introduced a Succession to Peerages Bill in the House of Lords which, if it receives Royal Assent, will allow hereditary titles to be inherited by the eldest child of either sex.

A Serious Musical

Le Boeuf sur le toit is a jazzy, tango composition by Darius Milhaud. I like it hugely and think the best translation is “Beef on the roof”.

Great Balls of Fire

Jeremy Paxman wrote favourably in the Weekend FT about the Pepys exhibition in the National Maritime Museum at Greenwich. I went on Thursday morning.

Special Escort Group

I first came across the Metropolitan Police Special Escort Group (SO14) in Sherard Cowper-Coles’ 2011 account of his time as our ambassador and, later, special representative to Afghanistan: Cables from Kabul.

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Should I Stay or Should I Go Now?

  That’s what I think at 1.00 a.m. when my hostess is frantic to get rid of me. It’s also what good-time girl Britannia is thinking about the Euro-bash where she has been partying since 1973.

Black Mischief

Dr Sylvester Nyatsuro, a 45 year old black British GP practicing in Nottingham, has been given a white family’s farm in Zimbabwe by the Zimbabwean government. He has lived in the UK for at least fifteen years but is eligible on two counts: he is, supposedly, an indigenous black African and is a friend of… Continue reading Black Mischief

Number Sixteen

We like to think of the UK being, if not the cradle of democracy, the mother of parliaments. Looked at objectively, how true is this?

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