Like most British people, I have a love-hate relationship with France. I despise the French political establishment and its obsessional pride in helping to create the monster that is today’s European Union; the culinary peculiarities of many of its restaurants; or the doubtful driving abilities of many of its urban inhabitants. On the other hand,…
Whereas most people in Europe have never even heard of Ceuta, I’m lucky enough to have been there. Granted, I was only seven at the time and I was on holiday in nearby Tangier with my parents. However, what made the day memorable was a small child’s cuckoo clock that my Dad bought me in…
Dear Reader, I would like you to close your eyes, concentrate your mind and picture the following analogy: You rent an apartment where all the rooms are painted a hideous bright red. On the day you move in, you ask the landlord whether you can get rid of the red and have the walls painted…
With both the General Election and the European Football Championships taking place earlier this week, I thought it would be a good opportunity to point out the similarities between the England football squad and our newly-elected Labour government. Both are symptoms of a country that has forsaken talent and ambition for good old-fashioned mediocrity; both…
Yesterday afternoon, the sickly whiff of clichéd promises emanating from the chamber of Stormont like the gravy trail we used to see on the old Bisto adverts meant one thing: The Northern Ireland Assembly was back in business. Yes, Europe’s most pointless and dysfunctional seat of government had reconvened, and with a party dedicated to…
After the majority vote in the United Kingdom for Brexit, the Irish Republic became one of those places ardent Remainers looked to for comfort and solace. Whereas we were portrayed as economically, politically and philosophically retarded, the Irish state became the Euro beacon of enlightenment. It was a fringe country of the continent fully embracing…
‘Will they or won’t they?’ Those are the questions the media are feverishly asking themselves of Northern Ireland’s Democratic Unionist Party as they pore over the latest offer on the Protocol devised by the government in conjunction with the European Union. Their answer should become clear in the next few days. Understandably, they have refused…