UNITED KINGDOM

Same Procedure as Every Year: The Story of Dinner for One

Memories are thick of this: the respectful, even reverential German introduction of a comedy sketch; the scratchy string orchestral music that adds a layering of anticipation.  Black-and-white film.  Dining room, white tablecloth, silver chandeliers.  The names Freddy Frinton and May Warden.  An English show broadcast on German public TV networks without subtitles.  Family members, perched, […]

Never Belonging: George Blake’s Spy Exploits

Filling the espionage ranks with legions of the non-belonging comes with its share of risk.  The process is counter-intuitive, putting stock in skill and aptitude above the potential compromise of loyalty and divergence.  Eventually, such a recruit might find a set of closely guarded principles. The son of a Sephardic Jew and Dutch Protestant might […]
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Boris Johnson Is as Incompetent as General Haig at the Somme: the Price is 50,000 Unnecessary Deaths

The serious failings by the Johnson administration is too long to list: they include minor errors – such as allowing sports fixtures like the Cheltenham Festival, attended by hundreds of thousands of people, to take place, when the rest of Europe was closing down – to putting a non-public health professional in charge of the vastly expensive test and trace system, with calamitous results.

Yuletide Lockdowns and Cancelling Christmas

The mind changer in Downing Street has struck again.  With UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson at the helm, changes of direction are compulsive, natural and sudden. The U-Turn has become the prosaic expectation.  “Too often it looks like this government licks its finger and sticks it in the air to see which way the wind […]
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