“It was the best of times, it was the worst of times, it was the age of wisdom, it was the age of foolishness, it was the epoch of belief, it was the epoch of incredulity.” Thus Charles Dickens begins “A Tale of Two Cities.” Would that the greatest of all novelists could return to […]
It’s not England from which many Scots wish to detach themselves. It’s London, the oversize hub controlling the revenue of an undersize empire. The Scots’ prickliness is understandable, and an untethered Scotland would satisfy the romantic yearnings of nationalism—Braveheart without the gore. Outright independence, however, would rupture valuable commercial ties for uncertain benefits. Read Here […]
British politics often seems dull without a glamorous political dynasty such as the Kennedys, the Bhuttos or our own Nehru-Gandhi family. Britons, of course, retort that they have one of the world’s most famous dynasties in the form of the royal family. It is also seen as a measure of the strength of British democracy […]
After the Queen’s visit to the Foreign Office this week, Foreign Secretary William Hague announced that the southern part of the British Antarctic Territory will now be known, at least on British maps, as “Queen Elizabeth Land”. Within hours of this announcement, made in acknowledgement of Her Majesty’s Diamond Jubilee and her service to the […]
On October 2nd, the South African website Politics Web published an extraordinary historical document, a 26-page memorandum from then-British Foreign Secretary Selwyn Loyd detailing the issues that he thought would affect British policy in Africa over the next decade. The memo gives a sense of just how much was at stake for a British empire in […]
looking beyond borders 