Sneak, snitch, grass - those one syllable words do not convey an aura of approval. In school, where we imbibe the morality that plagues us for the rest of our lives, a telltale can expect a bigger punishment than the class-mate he is squealing on. The sheer number of synonyms (I have just used five)…
A drop of golden sun
From Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart to Adolf Hitler to Conchita Wurst, little Austria has always punched above its weight. It is ironic that the country that gave the world half its great classical music and, so far, all its World Wars, should be almost exclusively associated today with one kitch movie.Fifty years ago this week,…
Trying to keep the relationship platonic
Following the recent news of Greece's continuing woes, and thinking about what to write, I soon realized that very little has changed since I penned the two Posts below in 2012. The country's new whacko Government has won a reprieve from a fatal dose of international hemlock by promising to come up with alternative measures…
Dial M For Modi
Bored out of my mind on a bus journey through the northeastern city of Sunderland around forty years ago, I involuntarily tuned into one of the working-class conversations going on around me. Not one word. Not one single syllable. They may as well have been talking Polish (which, nowadays, they probably would be). Forget that…
A Sheikh’s home is his English castle
'Cry — God for Harry! England and Saint George!' This year marks the 600th anniversary of King Henry V's victory over the French at the Battle of Agincourt. While Britain has had quite a successful run over the years overrunning other countries, it is almost exactly 950 years since Albion was last invaded. (We prefer to connect the…
Celebrity Squares
Adolf Hitler is, for me, ancient history, while Churchill is almost pinchable. Why the distinction regarding two implacable foes, the height of whose infamy and fame coincided exactly? It is simply because, by the time I was born, Hitler had been dead for over a decade, while I remember Churchill's funeral, 50 years ago next…
The spotlight beside the golden door
Fifty years ago today, the New York Times announced that Elizabeth Taylor had failed in her attempt to renounce US citizenship. Required to disavow 'all allegiance and fidelity' to the United States, she found herself unable to do so. Now, allegiance and fidelity are terms Ms Taylor had a lot of experience disavowing - eight lots…
Yes we can!
2014 was the year when 'Yes, we can' finally became 'No, I couldn't'. It is all over bar the shouting, and Mr Obama is reduced to bumping wedding couples off Hawaiian golf courses so that he can get on with one of the remaining functions of his office. In fairness, it isn't just the President…
Christmas Cheer
The spirit of Christmas Present materialized in the wake of the sensational success of 'A Christmas Carol'. Britain which, despite French whinging, was - in 1843 - the world's superdooperpower, had been struggling with Christmas traditions and what-not for years. Dickens's simple short story of a tyrannical, lonely employer mirrored against his put-upon employee (the latter having a loving,…
For Whom The Bell Tolls
The scene - a church graveyard in Middle England. A respectable crowd, trussed-up in winter clothes, surrounds an open grave. As the coffin is lowered into the gaping hole, the priest declares: 'The Mother of Parliaments gave, and the Mother of Parliaments hath taken away.' A sharply dressed gentleman throws the first clod of earth onto the…
Tax Break 