Blog
16 march 2013, and so it came to pass
Saturday 16th March 2013
It’s nice to be right sometimes, and that seems the case (see 23 january 2013) as bibi finally forms a coalition with the two new forces in israeli politics and, more importantly, without the ultra orthodox parties. The two have boxed clever, and together, to make sure the coming revolution against the deeply-entrenched settlement the haredi have won for themselves over decades is finally reversed. OK, tzipi first was a nice touch, but won’t change the fact that she is a don quixote fig leaf who will duly do her job for the next few years, tilting at the windmill of peace to keep the rest of the world just about off israel’s back while the government’s real business, of…
13 march 2013, not the papal elections
Wednesday 13th March 2013
I was chairing a meeting the other day when a well-spoken elder reeled off what he thought were the 3 occasions he could vote - “and the european elections” I added. The fact that the european parliament is just an afterthought (if that) for most europeans (and especially british) belies its importance, as over 75% of domestic laws now originate at eu level, which has consistently grown with each treaty. Despite its oddities (see 12 february 2011) the parliament is now co-legislator of almost all european activity, and although it won’t block the budget, it has on occasion put its foot down, like making the whole commission resign in 1999. I have written before (see the quiet road to 2009)…
1 march 2012, che confusione
Friday 1st March 2013
This has been brewing on my computer for some days now, but the economist beat me to it, and, I must admit, with a better headline. As they note, a quarter of voters didn't in this week's italian elction, and of those that did almost third % voted for silvio berlusconi, the most clownish premier since baron bomburst; and a further quarter voted for a real clown. Meanwhile, marvellous mr monti (10 november 2011) got just 10%. And so, just when we were beginning to think it was safe to get back in the water, up pops the unfortunately irrepressible jack in the box that is berlusconi to throw everyone right back under a bus. You can’t blame him for…
23 february 2013, zzz
Saturday 23rd February 2013
So, my prediction of doom (6 january 2010), that the uk will lose its aaa rating, has finally come to pass. However, it is just one agency, one notch and many years on, and so more like a rap on the knuckles than a hanging at dawn. Worth recalling too that in the intervening period no less an economic powerhouse than the usa also lost its – we must always say “prized” – aaa status; and walls have not come crashing down just yet. Sterling though, not being the dollar, will certainly take a big hit on this though, especially after taking one last week after it emerged that the bank of england is moving in the direction of…
22 february 2013, shock and pawe
Friday 22nd February 2013
I’ve spent a lot of my week on something that many roads have led me to in the past years, but on which I have not really travelled: the children of the great unwashed; or “early years” in the jargon. Though not quite one myself, I was born and bred in a serially-unemployed household and so knew deprivation, but not of the kind that has been pulled from the back of my conscious in the last few days to the front. It’s a world of far too many streets where most are unemployed, alcohol and other drugs are rife, mothers smoke and don’t breastfeed, depression is a norm and infant mortality rates are serious. Children starting school are already obese…
13 february 2013, smooth and tumble
Wednesday 13th February 2013
A very pleasant distraction from work today, with a visit (strategically vital of course) to mediacityuk, the new home of the bbc. It is amazing. Deserving of the uk epithet, manchester’s own little canary wharf really does start to make you believe the hype that some of the things happening around the place really are of a size and quality that have resonance around the world. And this just a stone’s throw (albeit a large one) from manchester united. Not only do coronation street, bbc sport, 5 live radio, cbeebies (once a permanent feature on our box; alas no more) and breakfast (which I never watch, strictly today for me) beam out from what were once abandoned docks, but there’s…
9 february 2013, it’s a boy !
Saturday 9th February 2013
I am impressed. After a couple of years or so of process and negotiation, which is the way of these things, 27 different countries have agreed a budget for a 28th which is the sum of them (see the state we’re in) for the next seven years. Nor is it small, coming in at just under 1 trillion euros, or around 1% of the budget, about what the uk spends on culture, for example. Even more impressive, they have collectively taken into account the public opinion of the woman on the clapham omnibus who doesn’t know whether or not all this austerity is right, but thinks that if every other government in europe is cutting expenditure, so should the…
2 february 2013, hilaryous
Saturday 2nd February 2013
There’s a lot of it around, but I’m going to have a go too. Bill was there when I was at my most intense political period (not least in israel, read christmas in bethlehem for the optimistic pax clintona period) and I have many times written that he was an exceptional president, at least from the waist up. The redoubtable madeleine albright was his (foreign) secretary of state, who lit the path. Then came hilary. They were always a double act, and even before the end of bill’s time the baton passed as she easily won her senate seat, very effectively winning hearts and minds. 2008 then brought a dilemma: what to do as the eminently wonderful obama became a…
23 january 2013, indelible
Wednesday 23rd January 2013
The opposite of risk-averse is putting on paper (or whatever this is) thoughts about the likely outcome of israeli coalition negotiations; but here we go. Whatever the instant consensus, this was not a defeat for netanyahu. Hardly a resounding victory, but at the end of the day he’s still going to be prime minister and the most dominant figure in the country’s history since ben gurion. Habayit hayehudi might not have won the “biggest surprise” award, but 12 seats was astounding, and allied to the likud it gives them a 42 seat starting point, making it the bedrock of the coalition. And stand together with his mentor bibi’s former chief of staff surely will, no doubt merging with the likud…
22 january 2013, no longer
Tuesday 22nd January 2013
There was a time when I would stay up all night for the results of israeli elections. They were so much more exciting than in britain. It wasn’t just a matter of whether prices would go up a bit or some mines would close; it was war or peace, nirvana or total destruction. I even named my never-finished novel after the 1996 election: went to bed in a dream, woke in a nightmare (read a bit in ...and here’s how it ended). Then, I was heavily invested, partying all night on the news that shimon peres had won: the forces of good and reason, a sane world, the closing of the circle of peace, not just with the palestinians, but…
12 january 2013, the emerald isle
Saturday 12th January 2013
I am off to dublin on monday, on an oecd mission. I have been to almost every european country: fleetingly in finland, lots in lithuania, robbed in romania and barbed in bosnia (25-6 may 2011; see 31 august 2010 too), but I’ve never been to the subject of this week’s charlemagne, ireland. It’s a good article that touches on the massive success of what was once a backwater region most of whose gifted sons and daughters left. Antagonism with the old british enemy led them to tightly embrace a european alternative, and consistent policy paid off with a couple of roaring decades that shifted ireland into the ranks of established well-to-do economies. Against the mightiest odds they have retained…
8 january 2013, time
Tuesday 8th January 2013
It’s not just women that mature. I’m listening to leonard, cohen of course (11 september 2012). Unusually though, I am listening to him on my computer, having downloaded the album (live from london as you ask). It was amazingly cheap, exceptionally easy and very convenient, so I don’t know why I haven’t done this before. It’s partly because like my mum (now tragically ageing) and a video recorder, there came a point when I just can’t effortlessly keep up. After months of me and my wife thinking about it, my 11-year old fixed up the i-player on the wii the other day (which would all have been gibberish to me just a couple of years ago), and the day before…