All Hail to the Monster
- September 26, 2019
- by
- Matt
Readers of this blog will probably know that I’m not a great fan of Boris Johnson. In fact it would be safe to say that I despise him as much as any British politician I have ever witnessed in my lifetime. It’s hard to put my finger on exactly why. It might be the constant...
The Strange Tale of the Disappearing Country
- September 22, 2019
- by
- Matt
I’ve been abroad in the Pyrenees for nearly three weeks now and it was, as it always is these days, a huge relief to be away from these septic isles. Of course you don’t forget them. Nowadays, you take Brexit with you in your mental baggage, even if you never meant to pack it. It’s...
Guest Post: Robert Mugabe (1924-2019): A History of Wounds
- September 07, 2019
- by
- Matt
Guest Post from Richard Drayton, Professor of History at King’s College, London.
Robert Mugabe is a hate figure in the West, especially in Britain, where the political right had such important family, economic and political connections to white-minority Rhodesia. And he did his own memory no favours: he was a man with very serious flaws, whose...
We Could Be Heroes (Just for No Deal)
- September 01, 2019
- by
- Matt
We have heard a great deal of stirring talk from Brexiters about World War 2 these last few years. It might be Boris Johnson comparing Francois Holland to a Colditz prison guard dealing out ‘punishment beatings’ to the UK in 2017, or condemning MPs as ‘collaborators’ with the EU in his Facebook video last month.
In...
Chronicle of a Coup Foretold
- August 29, 2019
- by
- Matt
Today, after weeks of hints, denials, and rumours, the UK has lurched closer towards constitutional and political collapse when the Boris Johnson government announced that it would ask the Queen to suspend parliament in the second week of September, and reconvene with a Queen’s Speech a month later, on 14 October. Many people have seen...
Johnson and Trump: That’s Entertainment
- August 27, 2019
- by
- Matt
If there’s one thing that Boris Johnson and Donald Trump have in common, it’s their propensity for lying. Where politicians like Blair and Bush lied and massaged facts to realise specific agendas, both these politicians at least recognised that truth existed and that it was important for politicians to make it seem as though it mattered.
Johnson...
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