The Swedish Ambassador took a trip north this week, to an uncharacteristically dry Scotland, to discuss how his country is getting on with holding the EU Presidency at this mid-way stage. This second (and probable) final stint holding the EU Presidency for Sweden comes at a key EU juncture in many senses.
As unveiled pre-July the …
“Much have I travell’d in the realms of gold,
And many goodly states and kingdoms seen;
Round many western islands have I been
Which bards in fealty to Apollo hold.”
Believe it or not, attending First Ministers Questions was probably not the most outlandish thing I had done all summer. In fact, I had herded and milked cows. I …
Leaving aside the very obvious questions of what exactly is going wrong with the British mission in Afghanistan given the pitiful election turnout and seemingly never-ending violence, the whole British presence there does raise some interesting issues.
Given that Britain has previously failed to ‘pacify’ Afghanistan at the time when we were at the head of …
“Then felt I like some watcher of the skies
When a new planet swims into his ken;
Or like stout Cortez when with eagle eyes
He star’d at the Pacific — and all his men
Look’d at each other with a wild surmise —
Silent, upon a peak in Darien”
Of course, it is all very well being inspired by something, …
The birth of a nation, a First Minister resigning, “a Taxi for MacLetchie,” financial ignominy, collapsing roofs, “fire-raising peers,” electoral fiasco…independence?
10 years on from devolution political journalists and picture editors scramble to assemble to the right mix of sensationalist clichés iconic images and wild speculation to commemorate this ‘historic event,’ before clocking off for the …
“What men or gods are these? What maidens loth?
What mad pursuit? What struggle to Escape?
What pipes and timbrel? What wild ecstasy?”
Scottish politics. As seductive, ephemeral and mesmeric as this magical scene described by Keats. It follows its own hypnotic rhythm that is often difficult to follow. Even 24 hour news, BBC Parliament and the rafts …
A very bright young reporter from the Today Programme was sent to join us at Radio Leeds. She, like I, wasn’t long out of training though hers was very much the BBC Fast Track and mine was not.
Her mission was to find a series of stories from West Yorkshire that reflected what was going on …