As the callow chumps in Westminster duck and dive, working out how best to game the system in their own selfish interest, the public knows whatever outcome will be bad for the majority. That doesn’t stop the Tories apparently favouring that feckless fool Johnson as a replacement for the intellectually inert incumbent of 10 … More Guy Fawkes: Where are you now we need you so?
A small army of these rather creepy cut-outs have recently cropped up around my area, clearly intended to enhance the mood of maudlin nostalgia which has been ebbing and flowing since the centenary of the start of the First World War in 2014. There are plans afoot for this to peak in a nationwide peal … More Lest We Forget
Most people would associate civilisation with running water, sewers, central heating and hot baths, with travel and trade enabled by ordered government, good roads and a secure currency. Britain enjoyed all these things over 2000 years ago, thanks to our being part of the Roman empire. Of course, the Romans had a nasty controlling habit … More All Roads Lead to Rome
This extraordinary edifice in the Antwerp docks stands for the uncomfortable accommodation of old and new you often find in Europe. Looking like a giant inter-galactic space bug trying to mate with a 19th century asylum, it seems to come from the same impulse which drives schoolboys to put a moustache on the Mona Lisa. … More R Day-4
Listening to the likes of Ian Duncan-Smith (IDS, barely distinguishable from IBS) rave about their battle to reassert sovereignty by walking away from Europe, his claim that it is all about intellect and integrity makes me laugh. As intelligent Tories – not necessarily an oxymoron – are at pains to point out, sovereignty is not … More Toeing the line
So I am now back at the heart of the region which initially attracted me, and have started revisiting the painted monasteries I first saw 47 years ago. This is Voronet, built in just sixteen weeks in 1488 to mark one of Stefan cel Mare’s key victories over the Ottoman Turks, which has been restored … More Day 14: More Monk-y Business
Sterling’s newfound strength in Europe made a stay at Beograd’s best Communist-era hotel, the Moskva, an acceptably modest indulgence, red carpet and gargantuan breakfast included. Not only did the nomenklatura stay there but so – according to the portraits which line the corridors – did a galaxy of stars, from Monica Vitti to Laurence … More Day 6: Beograd to Craiova
I left Dover at noon today as I have so many times before, the first time being in 1968. But the last time I saw the white cliffs of Dover was on television, over Nigel Farage’s shoulder, the cold one he wants us to turn on the European Union which has effectively employed him since … More Day 1
On Sunday I will be leaving the English summer to drive across Europe to Romania. I shall be leaving my home in the Buckinghamshire countryside: for 10,000 kilometres of the open road I shall be avoiding those staple seasonal pleasures of the English bourgeoisie – Royal Ascot, Glyndebourne Opera, Henley Regatta and the Wimbledon tournament – and what … More Eurofile: Exploring the Europe little Britain wants to leave
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