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The Chagos deal

The Chagos deal

For every amount of indignation “surrendering our territory for no reason” that can be stoked, India has stoked quite the opposite feeling of anti colonial indignation at the previous status quo, now leading to their day of triumph, for It’s come to this win for India after a long campaign by them sponsoring the fight for this outcome. We own it in eyes of UN. We don’t have to yield to UN court judgement’s, but we do need to be…

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Hyperliberalism

Hyperliberalism

1. Introduction “The New Leviathans” is a book by John Gray. It is not an easy read. It is overwritten and despite its short length it is too long, taking frequent digressions: so much so in fact it may be two books mashed into one or repurposed. But it does introduce the concept of “hyperliberalism”: a theoretical framework that unites “woke” and identity politics and academic liberalism under an umbrella term and provides a history. So let’s have a look….

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A Cambridge madness

A Cambridge madness

A little over four decades ago, a small Cambridge computer company had a big problem. Their biggest-selling product used an elderly microprocessor, just as their competitors were moving to more capable ones. However, those processors were stopgaps that would soon be overhauled. So, the company, asked, why not go for a newer generation of microprocessor? The only problem was that no suitable microprocessor existed. During a trip to a chip-design company in America, they were surprised to discover that the…

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Papa don’t preach –  Looking at the contenders to be next Pope

Papa don’t preach –  Looking at the contenders to be next Pope

With the death of Pope Francis at 88 after a 12-year pontificate, this header will look at the candidates to succeed him. In Italian, the candidates are known as Papabili (literally Pope-ables).  The rules Surprisingly, only 2 official rules govern Papal elections: These 2 rules mean that the potential pool of candidates is almost half a billion and includes the likes of Joe Biden, Cristiano Ronaldo and Arnold Schwarzenegger. Fortunately, there are also several unofficial rules:  The election process is…

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Unquiet flows the Don

Unquiet flows the Don

A balance sheet of Donald Trump’s first three months in power: Achievements: 1)      Succeeded in making himself and many friends very rich through shorting shares and government contracts; 2)      Succeeded in getting all his criminal cases deferred indefinitely; 3)      Succeeded in getting criminal cases against his allies deferred or dismissed; 4)      Succeeded in appointing his cronies and sycophants to cabinet posts (even though you would not want a cabinet with this many screws loose); 5)      Succeeded in royally pissing off all his allies with his…

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The Need For Allies 

The Need For Allies 

A feature of the classical Greek world was that long-term alliances, as we would understand the term, rarely existed.  A major power, be it Athens, Sparta, Thebes, or Macedon, would attempt to assert supremacy over its neighbours, and if successful, it would be accepted by them as Hegemon.  Typically, a Hegemon would expect its allies to follow it in war, accept garrisons of its soldiers, and colonies of its citizens, and frequently, pay them tribute.  The Hegemon’s allies were therefore,…

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Why Amanda Spielman should not be elevated to the peerage

Why Amanda Spielman should not be elevated to the peerage

What is leadership? A good case could be made that the key to leadership is understanding what is wrong and taking action to put it right. This, however, requires the leader in question to admit they have done something wrong and therefore that there is a problem that needs fixing. On this basis, possibly the most inept leader in Britain in the last 100 years would be Amanda Spielman. Let us consider what she has done wrong in an extremely…

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The matter of Britain

The matter of Britain

1. Introduction The “Matter of Britain” is the name given to a corpus of literature and legends associated with the first-millennium island of Great Britain and associated places. A mishmash of historical fact, out-and-out fiction and points in between, it gave national myths to a land which arguably did not exist, and created a patria around which patriotism could coalesce. Which brings to me to this article: who do we speak of when we speak of the British? What is…

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