Have you recovered from the initial shock? Well then, you must be eternally grateful to the Office for National Statistics for breaking the news. Yes, ladies and gentlemen, the ONS has vindicated Ernest Hemingway who reported this dialogue. Scott Fitzgerald: The rich are different from you and me. Hemingway: Yes, theyRead More

The influx of Romanians and Bulgarians has been ‘reasonable’, according to Dave. Leaving aside the question of whether or not an oxymoron like ‘reasonable influx’ can exist in the English language, one still wonders about the information on which this conclusion is based. Let’s see. In the first quarter ofRead More

The word ‘totalitarian’ crops up in my pieces more and more often. It may be a simple reactionary paranoia. Or, and I prefer this possibility, having grown up in a totalitarian state I know what it looks and smells like. One telltale sign is a curtailed freedom of movement: forRead More

The Chancellor has announced plans to slit your freedom with Occam’s razor. Before philosophers among you accuse me of ignorance, I’m using the term in its colloquial sense, meaning that a simple solution is usually best. Dave and George clearly favour simplicity when it comes to reducing our suicidal budgetRead More

Another day, another interview with Israel National Radio, another penetrating question that goes right to the core of the matter: “How does Russia’s aggression against the Ukraine affect the world in general and America’s allies in particular?” Since the interview kicked off at an ungodly hour of 5.30 am, myRead More

Normally I vary my topics from one day to the next, but the events in the Ukraine are so momentous that it would be frivolous to write about anything else. By and large, the press is treating the Ukraine as a proxy in a confrontation between Russia and the EU.Read More

It must be contagious. First George enlarged on the advisability of returning the Elgin marbles to Greece, a subject with which he’s manifestly and self-admittedly unfamiliar. Then Britain’s Catholic leader Archbishop Nichols accused the government of causing mass starvation by introducing some very marginal delays in processing welfare applications. InRead More

George is currently gracing London with his august presence. He’s here to promote his latest film that deals with Americans saving… well, not the world this time, but merely some art treasures looted by the Nazis. (The actual saving was done by an Englishman, but what’s an insignificant detail likeRead More

Not smoking in cars full of children is a good idea. However, many good ideas result in awful laws, and the ban Parliament is about to pass is one such. Smoking in general is a rotten habit, as I can testify from 30 years of personal experience. It gives youRead More

Yet another deluge accompanied by 80mph winds is coming, and Britain is bracing herself for more floods this weekend. As is obvious to any reader of daily newspapers, such things don’t just happen. There has got to be an ultimately identifiable cause, and we’re the ones to identify it. MostRead More