Has not the British Constitution changed so much since the Act of Parliament allowing admittance into the European Common Market in 1972 that some old rules cease to have application — and the myth of Parliamentary sovereignty is one? EU sovereignty trumping the country’s own sovereignties has been in place in law long enough to… Continue reading You’re not the boss of me, or are you?
Author: martin_hedges
Diamonds are Forever
Though it’s by no means the full story — to find that you might want go to my book, An Infinite Deal Of Nothing — and it does not even reveal the name of the man who was actually guilty of the biggest con tricks in history, it’s good to see that a part of the… Continue reading Diamonds are Forever
Even the bad times are good
An irony of the lust for content to fill up hours of broadcast, megabytes of digital and pages of newsprint, is that one bad thing ‘done good’ for a Presidential candidate, while a good thing ‘done bad’ for the other. The bad thing? Thoughts of an assassination. Nothing makes you look more Presidential — like Ronald Reagan resurrected… Continue reading Even the bad times are good
Mia constitutional crisis e sua constitutional crisis
We are spectators as some settled precepts of democracy come unglued. It is happening in the two countries where you’d bet the farm it would not have happened. Might it be that old, comforting representative democracy is just town crier in a Twitter age? There is not much to add about the US where the FBI —… Continue reading Mia constitutional crisis e sua constitutional crisis
Telephone’s early adopters
An aside into Victorian business life is the fact that when a London solicitors sent a letter on April 27 1885, its headed paper quoted the firm’s telephone number. The number was 1095 and there genuinely were another 1094 phones in businesses and a few private houses that the law firm could have called and been… Continue reading Telephone’s early adopters
Halloween? just call it Christmas
Lacking a Fourth of July or a Thanksgiving, over the past decade British shopkeepers have rushed to stock the Chinese-made paraphernalia of Halloween just to keep their cash tills ticking to tide them over till Christmas when they can begin shelving their supplies of Easter Eggs and Valentine’s Day cards. Too often you hear… Continue reading Halloween? just call it Christmas
More inconvenient truths about global warming
The folklore has it that it is hotter now than it was before. You are told it repeatedly until you are convinced and then you tell someone else. Global warming has gone viral. Is the testimony of history the cure? Here is a story from 1825 and from the little Irish town of Inistioge in County Kilkenny,… Continue reading More inconvenient truths about global warming
Old Slaughter’s Coffee House; ‘Now among the things that were…’
Thursday March 30 1843 saw the auctioning off of a London landmark just for its building materials. The wildly misnamed and deeply corrupt government department, the Commissioners of Woods and Forests, had bought the site at number 74 St Martin’s Lane. There was not a wood nor forest in sight, but Woods and Forests was conducting… Continue reading Old Slaughter’s Coffee House; ‘Now among the things that were…’