Category: Politics

  • Trump vs The Prince

    ‘It is not reasonable that they know how to rule, having always lived as private citizens… the first bad weather kills them.’ Reaching for something to read before bed the other day, I pulled down Machiavelli’s classic book on the dark art of state-craft, The Prince. Chapter VII begins thus: 500 years before Trump, it…

  • From Russia, With Chaos

    Over the past couple of weeks I’ve been re-reading Peter Pomerantsev’s book Nothing is True and Everything is Possible, each page pushing me towards the same, slightly counterintuitive conclusion: if you want to understand Trump’s America, you need to look to Putin’s Russia. I first read the book when a colleague – a history teacher I’d…

  • Atheist Prayers – When ‘Thoughts’ Are Not Enough

    As the events of the horrible attack on Westminster unfolded, the journalist and activist Laurie Penny sent a tweet that read, ‘thoughts and atheist prayers with everyone in Westminster right now. What a horrifying situation.’ And with that, the twittersphere erupted. Atheist prayers?! Atheists and prayers united in a vicious chorus of righteous indignation at…

  • Monsters vs Aliens | Immigration, Space Travel and Becoming Syrian

    Through a discussion club I run at school I got to thinking about the coincidence of two recent major news threads: immigration and space travel. I know, never a dull day in teaching. In the back of my mind were good friends in a sea-side village about 200 miles from London who have been getting…

  • *Finally* – A Biblical Perspective on the EU

    Came through my door today. A *slight* stretch, me thinks. Though I confess I’m tempted to investigate 😉 

  • A White House Where He Is Adored

    Very interesting read here about Trump’s ‘Southern White House.’  ‘He comes down here because he needs constant applause,’ one Palm Beach resident notes. ‘He’s adored within the confines of that club.’ What is becoming clear is that Trump is not adored among the worker-bees of the White House. His solution – flying off to where…