Author Archives

Retired lawyer studying the Chinese language and history of the mid-20th century

• The Beijing Home of Soong Qing-ling

  By Michael Ingle on September 9, 2016 • ( 0 )

  

  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 ›

• Reflections on the EU Referendum Campaign: the Immigration Issue

  By Michael Ingle on June 9, 2016 • ( 0 )

  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 ›

• The Beijing University ‘Red Building’

  By Michael Ingle on June 9, 2016 • ( 0 )

  

  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 ›

• Photos of Visit to Beijing

  By Michael Ingle on May 10, 2016 • ( 0 )

  

  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: Parks and Museums

  By Michael Ingle on January 4, 2016 • ( 0 )

  

  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 ›

• Will Immigration Concerns Lead to Brexit?

  By Michael Ingle on August 31, 2015 • ( 0 )

  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: The UK Is Trying To Have Its Cake And Eat It Too

  By Michael Ingle on July 30, 2015 • ( 3 )

  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 ›

• Eurosceptic Contradictions

  By Michael Ingle on June 24, 2015 • ( 0 )

  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 ›

• The Eurozone and IMF will bend more than Greece to Avoid Grexit

  By Michael Ingle on June 6, 2015 • ( 0 )

  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 ›

• EU Referendum Issues

  By Michael Ingle on May 25, 2015 • ( 0 )

  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 LibDems: A Need for Fresh Thinking

  By Michael Ingle on May 23, 2015 • ( 0 )

  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 ›

• Planning Restrictions Are Driving Us To Extremes

  By Michael Ingle on April 22, 2015 • ( 0 )

  Almost everyone in the UK agrees that we need to build more houses, indeed many more houses, if we are to provide adequate, and affordable, housing for those who need it.  Last year we built 140,000 new houses, but it… Read More ›

• The UK Election Campaign Comes to Life

  By Michael Ingle on April 10, 2015 • ( 1 )

  The campaign for the UK election, which will be held on 7th May, is at last showing signs of life.  The campaign proper only started on 30th March, after a lengthy ‘phony campaign’ which had been going on since Christmas…. Read More ›

• The Leadership Vacuum in Europe

  By Michael Ingle on February 21, 2015 • ( 0 )

  I have always been a keen supporter of the European Union and of the UK’s membership of it.  The EU has without doubt helped to keep the peace in Europe since it was established (a major achievement in itself after… Read More ›

• Can Angela Merkel afford to be so relaxed about Grexit?

  By Michael Ingle on February 1, 2015 • ( 0 )

  I am writing this post as a prediction and not as a warning, because I am certain that nothing I say will have the slightest impact on the outcome of the current Greek debit crisis.  However, I cannot resist putting… Read More ›