With Italy in lock down there’s music on the balconies of Rome’s apartment blocks, but it’s not Beethoven’s Ode to Joy. Five days ago the The European Court of Justice fined Italy €7.5 million for ‘illegal’ state-aid to Sardinia’s struggling … Read More »
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The Roaring Twenties began with a bang. Whatever else the decade may bring, chronologers will look back on its opening fortnight as momentous. The tone was set by the January 3 hit on General Quassem Suleimani, followed five days later … Read More »
this post also features on offguardian One of my most enduring friendships is with Pete, who in 1976 took off to Barcelona and never came back. A passionate Catalan separatist, whose knowledge of the city and Catalan history puts many … Read More »
I am in many ways a fully paid up member of the liberal middle classes, even if I appear to have gone off the rails of late. Ours is an extreme world. How else describe one of such staggering and … Read More »
this post also features in OffGuardian For years I’ve called myself a peg-on-nose Remainer. While many fellow Remainers strike me as naive, deluded on the nature of the EU and frequently contemptuous to boot, my bottom line is that … Read More »
the first part of this post features on offguardian I enjoy schadenfreude as much as the next guy and for the millions of us who detest Boris, last night brought the stuff in spades. I was quite taken by Jeremy … Read More »
. Analogies are by definition imperfect but humour me. Imagine, if you will, trying to make sense of the finer points or even the elementary principles of astronomy when you and all around you – as well as those who … Read More »
Sweden’s Deputy Director of Public Prosecution, Eva-Marie Persson, telling a May 13 press conference Sweden is to seek extradition Confused about Assange? You’re meant to be. That’s how dirty tricks work: witness the tobacco lobby’s sowing of doubt on the … Read More »
I’ve been a fan of this tiny country since my visit in April 2017. Now I’m a bigger fan. Thanks Ian Jenkins for this extract from Portuguese journalist Marta Pacheco’s December 2016 interview with Ögmundur Jónasson, Icelandic Minister for the … Read More »
