Metal surrenders to the heat, slinking away to dust. The remnants, lumped on the floor, are loomed over by an audience of intelligence agents — dispatched to watch the burn and all too pleased with the task – and journalists confounded by the absurdity of the scene. As if ripped from the old celluloid of […]
Nearly 500 miles of European land mass fell away, the English Channel hollowed out, the great earth shifted and the continent merged with the island to its west. When all came to rest, the medieval cityscape of Strasbourg, France, sat atop London… No, certainly not. But for many a Europe-weary Briton, it felt as such […]
Britain continues to hold the distinction of being home to the largest offshore wind farm in the world. And with as much offshore wind capacity already installed across the U.K. as the rest of the world combined, it will likely maintain its global industry leadership for years to come. Prime Minister David Cameron was on […]
Beneath a vaulted marble sky adorned in constellations of angels, dragons, man and beast, former British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher’s coffin spent the evening before her funeral cloaked in the Union Jack inside the neo-gothic Chapel of St. Mary Undercroft. Parliament, the starting block of Thatcher’s rise to iconic power, hovers above the Chapel in […]
There have been many movies made about Margaret Thatcher in recent years. Now that she has passed, here is a review of three of them. We start with “The Iron Lady” (2011), which stars Meryl Streep. Streep does a fantastic job of playing the former prime minister of the U.K. at the height of her power […]
The threats to the EU come from inside and outside: outside, as proven by the instabilities in Northern Africa and the Sahel; and inside, with the latest speech by British Prime Minister Cameron fitting within the euroskeptic narratives. The French intervention in Mali should concern all EU Member States and make them realize that the […]
The topic of Winston Churchill’s speeches – particularly his postwar speeches – first brings to mind his “iron curtain” speech. During the recent round of discussions over the future of the Euro after the financial crisis, Churchill’s name is occasionally invoked as a one of Europe’s founding statesmen. He was not, like Jean Monnet, an […]
Mitt Romney, Republican hopeful for the 2012 American Presidential election, arrived on Wednesday in London. This will open his European and Middle East tour for the next several days. Mr. Romney is scheduled to spend several days in London, for the opening of the Olympic games, then fly to Poland, and conclude his foreign trip […]
Today, Iran and the 5+1 group of permanent UN Security Council members (plus Germany) will sit down in Baghdad to discuss the terms of Tehran’s nuclear ambitions. Iran’s ambassador to Baghdad, Hassan Danaiifar, explained that merely hosting the talks demonstrated a historic chapter in the history of Iraq. But what does the event actually mean […]
These last couple weeks I have been watching numerous movies on British politics. Coincidence or calculations? Yesterday night, it was Tinker, Tailor, Sailor, Spy, the night before Page Eight (which by the way is one of my favorite spy movies), tonight most likely the Iron Lady. Prior to this triple hat, I saw the Queen, […]
by Hugh Hunter For almost 10 years I was the British consul for Florida, based in Orlando. During this time, that office was the busiest British consulate in the world in terms of the numbers of British citizens in prison: many hundreds arrested every year and almost 200 long-term inmates at any one time. Once, […]
In just a few short months, American troops will be replacing the embedded British soldiers in most of Helmand province. These British troops have spent the past several years attempting to bring stability to one of Afghanistan’s most violent and unstable regions. For instance, one-third of the 335 British soldiers killed in the country since […]
As I write this, British voters are going to the polls in what has been billed as one of the most exciting UK elections of the post-war period. Nick Clegg, member of the third-party Liberal Democrats, could overtake his mainstream rivals Gordon Brown (Labour) and David Cameron (Conservative). Regardless of the outcome, this is the […]
Amnesty International appoints its first Indian Secretary General: Salil Shetty will take over as the new Secretary General of Amnesty International in June 2010. Shetty has served as the Director of the UN’s Millenium Campaign for the past six years. According to Peter Pack, the chair of Amnesty International’s Executive Committee, “As we approach our […]
The leaders of Britain’s government have been facing an increasingly skeptical citizenry in terms of the nation’s troop presence in Afghanistan, but they are fighting to keep morale and support for what they still believe is ‘the biggest source of threat to our national security’. Prime Minister Gordon Brown and Foreign Minister David Miliband made […]