When bankers saw risk as well as reward

When he was a student at Harvard, Bank of England governor Mark Carney played back-up goalie in the teeth-threatening Canadian pastime of ice hockey. So Carney knows a bit about risk.. On Tuesday May 27 he gave a speech to a conference in London on Inclusive Capitalism. The gab-fest included most of the A-listers of… Continue reading When bankers saw risk as well as reward

Should an independent Scotland be allowed a British vote in 2015?

If Scotland votes in a binding referendum in 2014 to become a foreign country, can the British Constitution allow the Scots to vote in the UK a whole year later in 2015 — or to send MPs to a Parliament and there to make laws for a country which is no longer theirs? For constitutional… Continue reading Should an independent Scotland be allowed a British vote in 2015?

But you can’t trace time…

‘To settle a family argument’, as they say… In the usual robust and frank exchange of views with my brother-in-law, the sort of which customarily take place late in the afternoon following a convivial lunch, we took opposite sides on this point — that a person born in, say, an American or European city in… Continue reading But you can’t trace time…

Spelling bee is a game of two hives

Can anyone shed any light on a strange cultural diaspora. We get it that the ‘humor/humour’, ‘aluminium/aluminum’, ‘sulfur/sulphur’ etc schism now exists between the predominant forms of English. My question is does anyone know if and when there was some kind of pronouncement from either country, or has it just grown up in a custom… Continue reading Spelling bee is a game of two hives