Just in

World Affairs

Look at me now, not where I’ve been

It is a fact of life that politicians – and therefore media news and current affairs departments – the world over tend to operate as if we’re living in a ‘rolling news’ 24/7 world. Former UK premier Harold Wilson is attributed with having uttered the line ‘A week is a long time in [...]

November 2, 2014 // 0 Comments

It’s going to get worse before it gets better

Yes, that’s right folks – it’s the Dad’s Army theory of the future [Frazer: “We’re Doomed! We’re Doomed!” – Corporal Jones “Don’t panic! Don’t panic!”] – it appears that we’re all going to hell in a handcart! [...]

October 28, 2014 // 0 Comments

It’s the context that counts

Yesterday in South Africa Paralympian Oscar Pistorius was finally given a five year custodial sentence for his conviction in respect of the culpable homicide of his then girlfriend Reeva Steenkamp on Valentines’ Day 2013. [I should declare a minor personal interest here in that I am a lawyer, [...]

October 22, 2014 // 0 Comments

A right fine mess

In July this year, Football Association chairman Greg Dyke created a bit of a stir by announcing during an appearance before the House of Commons culture, media and sport committee that England would not bid to host a soccer World Cup tournament again as long as Sepp Blatter was at the helm of [...]

September 28, 2014 // 0 Comments

I don’t have a good feeling about this …

Today I wish to begin by thanking the many thousands of National Rust readers who have sent messages of goodwill and encouragement after my slight crisis of indisposition over the Scottish referendum on independence. I’m feeling very much better after my time off and my only lasting regret is [...]

September 26, 2014 // 0 Comments

Practising the art of the possible

It’s one of life’s truisms, but ultimately all human inter-relations at country-level and above are governed in their extent and effectiveness by the art of diplomacy. Diplomacy, of course, is an esoteric pastime reserved – in Britain at least – for mandarins in the Foreign and [...]

September 12, 2014 // 0 Comments

Hot air as it relates to action

This morning, watching and reading the media reports upon developments in the Ukraine and Iraq/Syria – not to mention recent events in Libya, Egypt and indeed Gaza – I was struck again by a realisation that is both blindly-obvious in one sense and yet also an eternal truth. A reasonably [...]

August 31, 2014 // 0 Comments

Plain-speaking that seemed to add up

Shortly after I awoke and rose from my bed in the wee hours this morning, I caught the tail-end of a Radio Five Live interview conducted by guest Up All Night presenter Lucy Grey with Michael Schwayer [query the spelling, I just noted it down as I heard it], a Professor from Georgetown [...]

August 22, 2014 // 0 Comments

Well I suppose it all makes sense

If someone didn’t invent the theory first at some point over the last 6,000 years – the period during which, I was once informed by someone who should know, human civilisation has existed – in my previous existence as a fictional blogger I came up with the concept that reality was in fact a [...]

August 16, 2014 // 0 Comments

I never got around to it

For a while now I’ve been thinking of drafting a piece on the West’s complicated and contradictory attempts, through the UN and otherwise, to advance the causes of human rights, oppressed minorities and – well, just the world of geo-politics. This is a distinctly fraught area of human [...]

August 12, 2014 // 0 Comments

1 … 143 144 145 146 147 … 150

Copyright © 2026 The National Rust | Design by Premonition