“The dog barks, the caravan moves on.” This old Turkish proverb suggests that the events of history keep rolling despite cries of complaint and censure. The hounds may yelp, but they can’t stop the progress of the caravan. In Europe, however, the sound of barking is getting louder as another ...

One London evening in 1914, just after Great Britain had declared war on Germany, British Foreign Secretary Sir Edward Grey was in his parliamentary office talking to a journalist. This is not always advisable for today’s politicians, but in those days statesmen from Westminster and hacks from ...

The last words of Queen Elizabeth are reputed to have been, “All my possessions for a moment of time.” That was Queen Elizabeth I, however, in 1603 and not the current United Kingdom’s late lamented monarch. That postscript would hardly have suited Elizabeth Alexandra Mary Windsor, known more ...

“Buy land,” Mark Twain advised. “They’re not making it anymore.” Perhaps Bill Gates has been reading the American author, as he recently became the largest private owner of farmland in America, quite a retirement allotment. Of course, Gates is perfectly entitled to use his financial reach ...

Italian politics in recent years make ancient Rome look like Belgium. By all means catch up on the details of Italy’s current political infighting, if you have a spare day or so, but you’ll watch Antonioni films that are easier to follow. A series of unstable, coalition-led governments has seen ...

When the Conservatives became the first recognized British political party in 1834, the catalyst was Robert Peel’s Tamworth Manifesto, designed to embody conservative values constitutionally and so improve the lot of the British people. How times have changed. The reason for the creation of ...

When Sir Anthony Eden was pressed as to whether he would remain as British prime minister in 1958, he had the following to say: “I do not feel that it is right for me to continue in the office as the Queen’s First Minister knowing that I shall be unable to do my full duty by my Sovereign and ...

When the British public voted to leave the European Union in 2016, it wasn’t just the result that shocked the liberal establishment; it was also the realization that the voters’ priority was illegal immigration. Now, with “Brexit” supposedly in place, it would be expected that the steady ...

Despite recent strong runners, Sir John Major is probably the worst Conservative prime minister Britain has had in modern times. But just as a stopped clock tells the right time occasionally, he made one resonant statement: I am an Englishman. Step on my foot once, I will apologize. Step on my foot ...

Given the news that a Dutch investigative journalist specializing in crime had been shot dead by a drug cartel keen to stop his reportage, you could be forgiven for asking what a Dutch journalist was doing in Mexico in the first place. In the great age of European multiculturalism, however, it was ...