One of the great worries facing the new political establishment in Poland is the low birth rate. Hence the decision to pay people to have children. I was reminded of this when reading Tom Tomorrow’s criticism of Niall Ferguson: “You see this theme popping up a lot on right these days – the fear of […]
The reliably dyspeptic Joseph Epstein recently penned an article with the upbeat rubric, Are Newspapers Doomed? Although eulogies for printed news dailies have been appearing fairly regularly since the advent of radio, Epstein�s article is interesting in the way it remorselessly analyses newspapers’ flailing attempt to attract young readers with a bourgeoning range of �lifestyle� […]
Imagine the scene: An athlete jogs nervously down one of Bologna’s main thoroughfares, clad in a politically-correct, unisex, running suit clutching a futuristic-looking, metalic, flame-flowering torch. It’s hard to get a view of him/her though as the athlete is surrounded/accompanied by 15-20 particularly uncomfortable-looking riot-police, jogging (or speed-shuffling in most cases) in phalanx formation. The […]
I complimented Beatroot for predicting a rapprochement between PO (Civic Platform) and PiS (Law and “Justice”) the other day. But now the nearly-ruling PiS looks like it’s getting into bed with Lepper’s Samoobrona (see previous post). Political commentators in Poland seem to be in the enviable position that any prediction they make – any at […]
My fellow monkey, Shane Barry, is exercised by Irish politician Mary O’Rourke’s “working like blacks” comment. Oh dear, oh dear, oh dear: Come to Poland! Listen to these pearls of wisdom from Andrzej Lepper, leader of the Samoobrona party, and a man not long ago considered a political pariah but now moving closer and closer […]
Here’s a lazy one, lifted from Nie (“No”) magazine. In Warsaw central railway station they have opened a special “Service Point” for intercity train travellers (or “the rich”) where you can, as Nie says, have a coffee and send flowers to your wife or fancy woman but not buy an intercity train ticket – for […]
In my last post I promised I would detail some of the more evident flaws in Tony Judt�s otherwise impressive achievement, Postwar. First, and perhaps it is just chauvinistic chippiness, but I wondered whether Albania having more index entries than Ireland is significant in what it reveals about the mindset of English-born academics of a […]
Italy’s minister for Foreign Affairs, Gianfranco Fini (TIFOF
Italy’s minister for Foreign Affairs, Gianfranco Fini (TIFOF