Theresa May has announced that she will serve the Article 50 notice on 29th March. This means that the UK will leave the EU two years later, in March 2019. As a strong Remain supporter, I continue to hope that… Read More ›
While in Nanjing last November (2016), I visited the ‘Presidential Palace’, located on Zhongshan Avenue in central Nanjing. The Presidential Palace is a museum comprising numerous buildings, pavilions and well landscaped gardens. It is located on the site of a… Read More ›
During my last visit to Beijing, in November/December 2016, I set off one Saturday morning from my hotel at Chongwenmen (about one mile southeast of the Forbidden City) to visit the Lu Xun Museum in west central Beijing. Though not… Read More ›
I was of course very disappointed by the outcome of the EU Referendum last June. However, I was not at all surprised. I opposed David Cameron’s decision to call a Referendum in the first place, as I knew it would… Read More ›
During a visit to Beijing this July, I visited the former home of Soong Qing-ling （宋庆龄故居）on the eastern side of Houhai Lake, not far from the Forbidden City. Soong Qing-ling was one of three sisters of a wealthy Chinese banker,… Read More ›
Looking back over previous posts on this site today, I was struck by my 31 August 2015 post ‘Will Immigration Concerns Lead to Brexit?’. As I predicted in that post, immigration has indeed become the number one issue of the… Read More ›
One of the most interesting places I visited during my recent trip to Beijing (March 2016) was the Beijing University ‘Red Building’. This building is only a short walk from the north west corner of the Forbidden City and is… Read More ›
I set out below a few photos from my recent visit to Beijing. I will also be writing a few posts about specific places I visited there.
Tokyo is famous for its highly developed urban landscape of modern office and apartment high rises, elevated freeways and shopping districts. It does have all of these things, but it is also a city of parks and museums, a number… Read More ›
Pre-EU Referendum polls show a continuing (and even increasing) lead for the ‘Yes’ campaign for Britain to stay in the EU. However, I am concerned that the constant focus on immigration issues in the UK could overturn this lead by… Read More ›
The migrant crisis in Calais has assumed tragic proportions, with several of the people trying to enter the UK having lost their lives in the process. Attempts by politicians in the UK and France to solve the crisis have so… Read More ›
Eurosceptics are now limbering up for the ‘No’ campaign in the UK’s forthcoming EU referendum. It is becoming clear that their key arguments for a ‘No’ vote in the referendum include the following: If the UK does not leave the… Read More ›
We appear to be nearing the end of the fractious negotiations between Greece and the Eurozone and IMF, over the Syriza government’s demand for a significant relaxation of the debt repayment terms imposed on Greece in December 2012. We know… Read More ›
Though I have always opposed holding an in-out EU referendum (for reasons well expressed by Tony Blair during the recent election campaign), UK voters have now decreed that we will have one. More than 50% of voters supported the Tories… Read More ›
The 2015 UK election was truly a debacle for the Liberal Democrat party, of which I am a member. The LibDems now have only eight MPs in the House of Commons (down from 57), and their share of the vote… Read More ›
