Over the past few months, I have found myself considering the knotty issues of integration, citizenship and cohesion. Life in lockdown acts as a pressure cooker for the issues already present in society. Tensions have been bubbling up between communities, social classes, blue and white collar, young and old, and even within families and households […]
Brexit
It’s October 31st and this is NOT a blog about Brexit
My team are a cunning bunch and a few weeks back, with the 31st October coming up, they said to me, “How about you write a blog for Brexit day?” Well, I agreed as I was rushing out the office. But, of course, now there is no Brexit to speak of and we still don’t […]
The Treaty of Versailles is 100 years old – so what?
The Treaty formally ending the First World War was signed a hundred years ago, on the 28th June 1919. Most school children in the United Kingdom will learn about this event, yet it wasn’t really a long lasting treaty, as much of what it laid out was overturned within 20 years. So what’s the point? […]
New Britain – how about it?
One day, the current political impasse will be over and our politicians will start lifting their heads from their tightly-wedged positions gazing firmly into their navels. It is, of course, a little unfair to put all the blame on Westminster: it’s not like Parliament is disunited and the rest of the country is at peace […]
The Brexit stab in the back – lessons from 1919 for 2019
Have you ever tried to explain to someone that they’ve got their facts wrong and have totally misunderstood what is going on? How about if that person felt a little threatened? How about if they were suspicious of your motives and suspected you were undermining them? How did that conversation go? Did you change their […]