Monthly Archives: December 2015
Podemos – Spain’s Joker in the Pack
If there was an enduring legacy of the Spanish Civil War, it was that whatever its outcome, Spain was fated for decades subsequently to be divided between winners and losers-and Franco imposed his victory, brutally, with little sense of reconciliation. Seen against this historical background , perhaps the best thing that can be said about Spain’s general election is that there were no clear winners or losers, at least not to the extent of any one party being able to claim the moral authority to impose its governance unilaterally. Indeed …
John le Carré & Graham Greene
Review of Adam Sisman’s Biography of John le Carré pubilshed in The Tablet 17 December 2015 As admirers of Graham Greene will know, espionage can provide the context for exceptional novels. Few living writers have learned that lesson as well as David Cornwell, better known as John le Carré. Le Carré, like Greene, drew from his own experience in the intelligence servies to produce some of his best work: The Spy Who Came in from the Cold and Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy, relatively early on in his writing career, and …
Reasons to be Positive
Looking back on the last few months of 2015 and some of the events that make me feel positive about the future 18th June Pope Francis’ encyclical Laudato Si’ – Care of our common home, emphasises the connection between environmental degradation and poverty, between the love for creation and poverty reduction and the interconnection between human dignity, human development and human ecology. http://www.cafod.org.uk/…/UK-…/pope-francis-first-encyclical Ist July The U.S. and Cuba have reached an agreement to restore diplomatic relations and reopen embassies in each other’s capitals, a senior administration official said Tuesday, …
Laying the Ghost of Peron
Laying the ghost of Perón 10 December 2015 by Jimmy Burns The Tablet This week the newly elected Mauricio Macri was sworn in as president of Argentina, replacing a generation of Peronists. Can he unite a country troubled by poverty and corruption, issues that Pope Francis frequently highlighted in his days as Archbishop of Buenos Aires? A new chapter in Latin American politics has been opened up with the election of Mauricio Macri, a businessman and former football club boss, as president of Argentina . It follows a historic victory …
