Essays & Opinion
How We Lost the War
‘The War on Terror’. It is not a phrase you hear much any more. The reason for its decline in usage is simple enough. We lost. If we had won, we would have never have […]
Politics
Politics
Hell Means Never Having to Say You’re Sorry
[An unoccupied, windowless but otherwise plushly decorated hotel room. The single door opens and a valet escorts Tony Blair, Winston Churchill and Margaret Thatcher into the room. Churchill and Thatcher take seats on either side […]
comedy
Screen Presidents
When actors land a big part, they do not get much bigger than Commander-in-Chief. Sometimes the role is played crooked, sometimes played true. Sometimes the President is a hero, sometimes a fool. Here is my […]
Essays & Opinion
All for Nought
In her last Christmas message of the decade, the Queen Elizabeth II began by saying: Each year that passes seems to have its own character. Some leave us with a feeling of satisfaction, others are […]
Essays & Opinion
Rules Britannia
If you ever watch children playing football, the preparation for the game begins with locating a ball and picking the two teams. The kids will put down jumpers for goalposts or otherwise agree what the […]
comedy
Humble Bill Says No Nobble Of Nobel
Yesterday I received another letter from Prince Karl Zeis, member of the royal house of Delfthia, and long-time fan of Halfthoughts. Prince Karl often hobnobs with the world’s elite. But I was flabbergasted by the […]
Audio
Lily Allen: The New Arthur Scargill
Enjoy this blog as a podcast here or at iTunes. George Orwell wrote about Salvador Dali: “One ought to be able to hold in one’s head simultaneously the two facts that Dali is a good […]
Essays & Opinion
Ideas: Worth Less, Worthless, or Worth Even More?
When the US was a young nation, it was greedy to learn and to grow. A good example is Benjamin Franklin a famous polymath who experimented with electricity amongst other things. Benjamin Franklin was an […]
Essays & Opinion
Force To Be Reasoned With
Alastair Darling, the UK’s Chancellor of the Exchequer suggested something laudable, and unusual, and despicable, yesterday. He suggested that legislators should not pass laws that are unenforceable. That is laudable, because we can all agree […]
Essays & Opinion
The Intellectual Crisis in Copying
Technology is an amazing thing. It makes you think. I do not mean it makes you think about how things work, though it does that too. It makes you think about things you take for […]