"It's under starter's orders - and they're off!" 2013 has scarcely made it out of the stalls and two stories are already vying for a place in the Winner's Enclosure at the annual Let's-Knacker-The-Taxpayer Steeplechase. First to gallop off the page and nearly knock out my eye was the disclosure by the Wall Street Journal that the Indian…
I did it their way
Less than a month after my rare downing of a beer in an English pub, I was at it again – this time in New York. Served an ice-cold bottle of lager, I looked around furtively for the glass. Then I remembered: John Wayne didn’t do glasses. Swigging from the bottle – a practice I…
The 2012/13 Overture
In the '70s and '80s there was a major movement worldwide to gently nudge the Soviet authorities to "Let my people go". Mass rallies, protests and disruption of Russian cultural events were the order of the day from London to New York to Sydney. With the collapse of Communism, the '90s saw the influx to Israel…
Beating about the Bush tax cuts
I believe it was John the Baptist who coined the phrase, "In the beginning was the Word". Whatever your creed, words have definitely had a pretty serious effect on the world from time immemorial. For me, the mere mention of the word "War", in all its mono-syllabic, animal-like simplicity, is enough to strike fear into my…
Tax Break 