For most of the last 45 years, the UK was the object of envy from its EU member state colleagues. Many felt that the UK had been able to influence EU institutions, policies and activities far more intelligently than any other member state. It was a widespread view, shared privately by many European politicians and […]
Category Archives: Op-ed
Professional Writing Writing
They awoke…
The hidden past of the bisexual pronoun Those of all political and cultural persuasions [...]
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2026 Ahem
BABY FAIRYLAND TWITTEN: March 2026
Ahem I was about to open a pile of birthday cards when I was encouraged [...]
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30
Mar
Mar
2026 Ahem
QUOTIDIAN HAMMERHEAD HIPPO: February 2026
Ahem Rain and colder weather in southern England dominated the first few days of the [...]
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02
Mar
Mar
2026 Ahem
SCUDDED PROPRIETORIALLY TRIMMINGS: January 2026
Ahem, During this interminably long month of heaving weather, our far south-east corner, ancestral home [...]
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02
Feb
Feb
2025 Ahem
QUERYING PAKKELEG CONVULSED: December 2025
Ahem Our Christmas celebrations normally start after we celebrate Gwen’s birthday on the 12th, when [...]
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01
Jan
Jan
22
Sep
Sep
This is the time of the September Equinox, which was once of great importance to farmers at harvest time. Bringing in the harvest before the frost arrived, normally in September or October, was a major challenge. Often farmers needed to keep working on the harvest even after dark. That’s why the Full Moon closest to […]
02
May
May
What is often termed Business / Corporate English has become little more than dead code, a lacklustre collection of weak and overused phrases stretched unevenly across an unimaginative vocabulary. And it’s not confined to English. There are very similar deathwish trends affecting French, Spanish, German and most other developed-world languages. The real problem is that […]
03
Mar
Mar
The Nigerian elections have shown a rare example of an African country playing (mostly) by the democratic rules, often seen as an essential condition for long-term investment decisions. Over 11 million first-time voters were registered in a total of 93.4 million voters, 40% of whom were 18-35 years old. The incumbent, President Buhari, stepped down […]
Early this morning, in our house in the Tarn-et-Garonne, in southwest France, I awoke in the darkness. Not exactly unusual for me these days but I had an idea that although it was still very dark outside, it was close to dawn. I checked my watch: it was around 5.30am. Normally I only open the […]
21
Jun
Jun
A hyperbaton is when you put words in an order that seems or sounds wrong, which is difficult to do with confidence in English. When almost everything else in the English language is so careless, lazy, and slapdash, the rules for English adjectival word order are throat-tighteningly strict. Punishment for this crime, as ever, is […]
03
Feb
Feb
Phase out animal agriculture? It’s the quickest and only intelligent way to reverse climate change. But is it the easiest way? There seem to be few candidates for a genuinely easy way to stop and reverse climate change, but if people in their billions stopped buying and eating food made from or by animals over […]
I’m against Covid. I’ve had a primary, secondary and a booster. I had a reaction the first time that made me regret the vaccination for a couple of hours. Then after that I didn’t regret it, and when my best friend’s sister passed away some time later from Covid, more than a month after contracting […]
08
Oct
Oct
Notwithstanding the Covid-19 pandemic and its tragic impacts, the key challenge for the next few years for climate change and the environment is to align international policies in a common process of concertation to enable countries to recover from recession while building a sustainable and functioning economy and a zero-carbon and climate neutral environment. The […]
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Sep
Sep
Words are the least understood part of that crowded, undisciplined and noisy group of ill-fitting elements that together constitute communications. In fact, words often get in the way of communications, like rider-less horses in a race or like hooting cars in a traffic jam. We misunderstand each other every day, even when the meanings of […]