There are big and weighty matters in the papers at the moment.  Should Scotland leave the United Kingdom?  Should the United Kingdom leave the EU?  Should NATO combat Russia and/or militant Islam?  These are all worthy and important, but in the middle of all this pops up the seaside town of Clacton.  This happens to

Every now and again the local civic society in my town raises funds by holding a second hand book sale in the town hall.  It is a gruesome affair, where the thin veneer of civilisation is ripped off and men and women revert to the brutish state of nature.  The doors open at 10.00am, by

It is good to be clear about how the world really is, rather than how we would like it to be.  One easy mistake to make is to conflate radical Islam with Islam.  Islam does not have a moderate form and an extreme form.  Indeed, neither do Christianity or Judaism.  All three religions are large

Britain’s military agreements with France just prior to the First World War were basically a gentleman’s agreement between the Foreign Secretary, Lord Grey and the French military.  It is perhaps understandable that the details were not made public by revealing them to parliament.  It is a bit more surprising that the Cabinet were kept in

The idea of creating a Jewish homeland in Palestine would have made perfect sense in the nineteenth century.  Nationalism was all the rage.  Everyone wanted to be in a nation.  The British and the French were there already.  The Germans and Italians were working on it.  Nationalism was opposed to hereditary monarchs and their empires

The Romans fought three wars against the Carthaginians.  The first two were deadly battles between great empires, but the third was simply a siege.  The Romans found a pretext and used their superior forces to surround Carthage.  The encirclement lasted four years.  The Carthaginians defended themselves for as long as they could. But it was