16th September 2018

Is Corbyn another Petain - ‘peace’ at any price? My first impression on moving to France was how insular the French seemed.  What could have happened in the past to affect every single French citizen in such a marked way?  As a writer, I delved into original French texts to discover more. It soon became clear. A whole nation is guilt-ridden because of the actions of one man: Philippe Petain. This weak and old Vichy leader took the seemingly ‘easy’ route to peace by signing an armistice with Hitler. Corbyn too doesn’t see the point of war. But Churchill knew well enough.  Yes, try diplomacy with normal, educated world leaders but you can’t negotiate with tyrants and evil dictators. I’m not sure Corbyn can tell the difference! Voters beware: at general elections, make sure you vote for the one who fulfils the following minimum criteria: university educated, proven knowledge of national and global issues, balanced mental abilities, young and fit enough to deal with difficult global issues in a calm, measured way.  Petain was deficient in at least two of these criteria. Worried about the UK? Read my novel VICHYSSOISE to learn more about what went wrong in France. authl.it/52l

9th September 2018

I don’t make jokes. I just watch the government and report the facts.
         Will Rogers
Listening to BBC Radio 4’s Any Questions is always good for a laugh. What a choice for the British people at the next election if it’s Jeremy Corbyn v Boris Johnson. Extreme Left v Extreme Right. Everyone will want to tick the box ‘None of the above’. What we need is a centrist Macron-type party, but it seems our system can’t cope with that. Where are the Lib Dems when you need them? Nowhere!  On Brexit, a recent poll asking whether voters wanted a new referendum scored 59% yes, but apparently it’s much too late for that.  So what’s to be done? Compromise is the order of the day. I believe the way forward is to adopt the Canada+ model: solving the Irish border and trade issues in one. And the  Corbyn v Johnson, Punch n Judy pantomime?  I say get rid of them both, replacing them with educated, well-spoken ‘centrist’ members who are able to enunciate their policies clearly without any endemic racism or behind the scenes shenanigans. That’s the way to do it!

2nd September 2018

If I’d written that in a few months time all British customers living in the EU look like losing lending, deposit and insurance access to their own UK bank accounts, you’d think I was writing a new Orwellian fantasy. But I kid you not. The look on the face of new Brexit Minister Dominic Raab says it all really as he scratches his head and contemplates a ‘no deal’ agreement with the increasingly inflexible Barnier. It also looks like curtains for poor old Gibraltar. Brits there should start arming themselves against an increasingly hostile Spain, who historically always claimed ownership. And here, the UK papers headline aggressive ‘be prepared’ notices to one and all.  I almost expect posters going up in every suburb, complete with Lord Kitchener image and accusing finger, shouting “your country needs you”.  Next I expect posters of a woman wearing utility clothes urging us all to dig for victory. And here at chez-nous? Already I have a crate into which each week I stockpile essential foodstuffs for the oncoming armageddon. With my history, I have to be prepared.

26th August 2018

“..In the distance a humming sound reached his ears, increasing steadily in its velocity as a dark shape circled overhead. He looked up and saw, through the light of the streetlamps, the insignia of a British military plane...Out on the tiny airstrip there was a screech of tyres on concrete, sparks flying on impact, then dissolving into the heat of the night..Inside the plane, the pilot, distinctive in close-fitting cap and goggles, hauled them unceremoniously into the cockpit....Like a huge, monstrous bird, the British military plane raced along the runway, picking up speed until with one graceful movement its tiny wheels lifted off the ground, clearing by inches the flailing fists of the wrathful Germans..”
Lamplight. 

If ever you wonder why the referendum vote swung away from mainland Europe, read the sentiments in the above extract taken from my WWII novel Lamplight (click the icon on the right.) To be British back then was everything. Everyone in this region is invited to a special #RAF100 event featuring the Red Arrows flying spectacularly over Birmingham’s Victoria Square: date: Sun 26 Aug 2018, 15.00h. For all lovers of old planes, the history is there. The RAF was formed in 1918, making it the oldest individual airforce in the world.  And there’s the enigma: it’s individual, nothing to do with any other country.  That’s what I hear Brexiteers saying all the time. They want to feel British, not beholden to anyone else. For the future, who knows? But today we’re all celebrating those magnificent men in their flying machines.

19th August 2018

When, one year ago, we were speeding back to Birmingham, I had visions of shopping in all those giant department stores of my youth: Lewis’s, Rackham’s, Grey’s, Debenham’s etc. But this week Rackham’s successor, the glam House of Fraser, was taken over for a song by Sports Direct, and the others seem to have simply disappeared. Oh how I used to love swanning around, spraying the expensive perfumes when the exquisitely-groomed sales girls weren’t looking. France, of course, more or less invented le grand magasin. If you read Zola’s novel Au bonheur des Dames (a paradise for ladies), you’ll see that in 1860 Paris he based his story on the original Le bon marche superstore, which itself put local market stalls out of business. But now? Birmingham is to introduce a new expensive pollution tax for city centre shoppers arriving by car, marking the death knell of traditional city centre shopping. Despite the Chancellor vowing to redress the tax burden between store and internet sales, buying stuff from Amazon just won’t be the same somehow. Sigh.

12th August 2018

When I worked for undergraduate admissions, August was always a nervy time. This week, as we approach A-level D-Day, how different things look. In 1970 only 8.4% applied for a place; now it’s nearer 50%. But even this is down by 3.4% this year. A combination of more stringent exams plus £9,000 p.a. tuition fees plus too many graduates chasing too-few graduate level jobs tells its own tale. Now there’s the Brexit effect. EU students pay the same fees as UK students but, after graduating, many return home without paying back their loans!  But after March presumably EU students will have to pay far higher overseas fees. The Education Secretary needs to get a grip to redress the balance. Introduce just two types of school at 11: academic grammar schools and high-powered technical schools allied to industry offering apprenticeships. Only then will August Thursday admission day have real meaning again. Want to find out what goes on behind the corridors of power in academia?  3RD DEGREE MURDER. authl.it/4ia

5th August 2018

Europe is feeling the heat in more ways than one.  Brexit fears increase exponentially as the March 2019 D-day looms. I decided against calling it B-day! If we make too much fuss, the government may crumble and bring in a Corbyn government espousing extremist Communist policies. And what of the poor British expat still stuck in the limbo land which is the EU? Should we then have another referendum? What would the choices be this time? Or is all this too complex and dangerous to put to the man in the street (who largely just wants less immigration)? Britain needs urgently a new Centrist party like Macron’s En Marche to guard against the real fear of extremism. So, as Theresa liaises with Emmanuel in his glorious summer Med retreat, don’t think that’s what they’ll be discussing somehow. The long hot summer of oppression continues.