Before his fall from grace – if not wealth – Goodwin was variously named Forbes’ Businessman of the Year in 2002, the most powerful person in Scotland by Scotland on Sunday in 2003 and European Banker of the Year in 2003 as well as receiving a knighthood and an honorary fellowship by the London Business [...]

Jaap de Hoop Scheffer’s term of office is coming to an end and a new Secretary-General will be emerging over the next few weeks. As with the election of a new Pope, candidates don’t openly run but names do emerge. Three names that may (or may not) have been mentioned are the Danish Prime Minister, [...]

I lived, for a short time, on Connecticut Avenue in DC and it was with a few hours of layover and a profound sense of nostalgia that I took a very familiar train journey, on the red line from Union Station to Cleveland Park. Things there have both changed and not changed. The Uptown Theatre [...]

As various people have noted (not least Septic Isle), s76 of the Counter-Terrorism Act is somewhere between barmy and 1984. The relevant section reads 58A Eliciting, publishing or communicating information about members of armed forces etc (1) A person commits an offence who— (a) elicits or attempts to elicit information about an individual who is [...]

Today is the two hundredth anniversary of the birth of the sixteenth President of the United States of America – Abraham Lincoln. Variously commemorated in Washington, DC, in his memorial, at Mount Rushmore in South Dakota, the capital of Nebraska, an aircraft carrier and, I should think, umpteen high schools across the USA, Lincoln figures [...]

The design for the Ebbsfleet Landmark, aka the Angel of the South, will be Mark Wallinger’s fifty metre tall horse. As I mentioned a while back, my preference was for Christopher le Brun’s wing-disc design. All they have to do now is, er, find the money they need to build it. I hope that it [...]

In an open letter in yesterday’s Guardian, George Monbiot attacks Hazel Blears for being, well, Hazel Blears. I have no objection to whinging lefties. Indeed, I often whinge and (definitional objections notwithstanding) have been called a leftie. Monbiot gives us a bad name. Not only that, he makes what he wants to achieve and what [...]

A friend sent me a link to The Nationalism Project, which seems like a useful resource for students of nationalism. xD.

Teddy Roosevelt referred to the Presidency of the USA as a ‘bully pulpit‘. He used the former word in the (Famous Five) sense of ‘bully for you’. In other words, it’s a great platform from which to promote an idea or ideology. Any elected representative can, eventually, be removed from office in a reasonably-functioning democracy. [...]

Figures for satisfaction with London Transport are out (see p30/31 of this PDF), I see from the inimitable Tory Troll. Method Satisfaction (%) London Buses 80 London Overground 79 London Underground 79 Croydon Trams 86 Dial-a-Ride 88 London River Services 87 PCO – Taxis 85 PCO – Minicabs 81 Victoria Coach Station 78 As a [...]