13 December 2018 A French Lesson For Us “No man is an island”. By John Watson There is a moment in the film Johnny English when Rowan Atkinson shrugs his shoulders in mock bafflement when referring to the French. It was inevitably part of a joke but nonetheless it strikes something of a chord. Near
13 December 2018 Ding Dong Merrily On High Take cover! By Neil Tidmarsh Look up there – those lights in the night sky – flashing all kinds of colours through the December darkness… What are they? Are they your neighbour’s Christmas lights, strung across his roof and the trees in his garden? Or are they
13 December 2018 Moving In Moving on. By Lynda Goetz When I bought and moved into my first home in 1981 it was with my new husband (my parents nowhere in sight). At the time we both worked in the City and the house we found was in Clapham; Clapham North, the grottier end, just
13 December 2018 Macron & Les Gilets Jaunes Can he continue to reform France? By Richard Pooley To know your own country you must leave it; to know another country you must live in it. I wrote that observation forty years ago. I have been reminded of it several times over the past three weeks
13 December 2018 Diary of a Corbynista Tories in Disarray by Don Urquhart 6 December To lighten the mood Day 6 of the Corbynista Advent Calendar has a Disney flavour. Yesterday in the Commons Ian Blackford and Theresa May rehearsed their roles as Jiminy Cricket and Pinocchio in the Commons Christmas Revue. He accuses her
13 December 2018 Home buying Christmas early or cancelled? By Frank O’Nomics House price falls are being hidden. What a treat! Had I been singled out as a potential buyer who needed a little encouragement? Whatever the reason, it seemed remarkably generous of a house builder to offer to pay the stamp duty on a
13 December 2018 Silent Night Technology stuck in shed by J.R. Thomas It was winter in London and deep underground there was a rumbling and a rattling; could it be an oncoming train? Well, no it couldn’t. Not on the Elizabeth line anyway, or Crossrail as it is better known, and given what is
06 December 2018 No Deal: A Dead Duck? Mrs May’s Plan B. By John Watson “Leave or Remain?”, “Deal or No Deal?”, “Hard or Soft?”. These are the questions being debated across every dinner table in the land. Well, not actually every dinner table. Some have simply had enough of it all, and have understandably
6 December 2018 Diary of a Corbynista How to destroy an education system by Don Urquhart 29 November On the BBC Hannah Richardson reports that some universities are increasingly recruiting students with unconditional offers. They are telling students that A-level grade requirements will be dropped completely if they put the university down as their first
06 December 2018 The Battle For France Reform v Reaction. By Neil Tidmarsh Plus ça change, plus c’est la même chose? Well, no, not quite. Ok, President Macron has admitted defeat this week and suspended his planned rise in fuel taxes after almost a month of widespread and often violent protest. This third Battle For
