Ferdinand Foch was undoubtedly the military colossus of the western front in the First World War. He rose through the ranks of command in the French Army, becoming first Chief of the General Staff and then Supreme Commander of the Allied Armies with the title of Généralissime. Together with General Haig he planned the Great Offensive of September 1918 which triggered the collapse and defeat of Germany. […]
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> At the Second Quebec Conference in the middle ofSeptember 1944, President Roosevelt and the US Secretary of the Treasury HenryMorgenthau tried to persuade Winston Churchill and the British delegation on a radicalplan for post-war Germany. The militaristic, Prussian tradition would bedestroyed once and for all, ensuring that Germany could never again threatenthe peace in Europe and the world. Part of this would be achieved by […]
>A controversial plan for post-war Germany
> For a shortbut significant period of time on 10 August 2011, Apple Inc. was theworld’s largest corporation by market capitalisation. Wresting the top spotfrom Exxon Mobil is no mean feat for a company that flirtedwith bankruptcy only 14 years ago. The ‘top spot’ in the global peckingorder has become increasingly volatile this century, with no less than 14changes in the last decade. Recently there have […]
>Clash of the corporate titans
> Thomas Power O’Connor’s election to the House of Commons as an Irish Parliamentary Party MP in 1885 was not unusual. He was one of 86 Irish nationalists elected that year, a strong result that built on the 63 Home Rulers elected in 1880. What was unusual was that O’Connor represented a constituency in England. He had also been voted in by the electors in an […]
>TP MP – the Irish Nationalist MP for Liverpool
> As buildings burned, shops looted and streets ceded to the control of rampaging youth, the country’s leaders were on holiday. With escalating civil disorder and public demands for action, an unfortunately essential quadrumvirate of the Prime Minister, Chancellor of the Exchequer, Home Secretary and Mayor of London were en vacances. They soon returned. The Home Secretary Theresa May flew back on Monday 8 August, followed […]
>Prime Ministers Out of Office – the top job en vacances
> The story is irresistible, and, as such, has become part of the BBC’s unofficial history. It is repeated on countless websites, news stories and anecdotes. It is the story of how the BBC returned to television broadcasts in the aftermath of the Second World War. As Europe teetered perilously on the edge of cataclysmic conflict, BBC television was still in its infancy. The service could […]
>As I was saying before I was so rudely interrupted
> The office of the Prime Minister is at the heart of the Westminster system of government. In any other country so central a role would be clearly defined and delineated in the constitution. But in the UK, it existed for centuries without official acknowledgement. The first mention of the post of Prime Minister in legislation was in the Chequers Estate Act 1917, which saw the […]
>Acknowledging the Prime Minister
> Footage of fighters perched on jeeps and trucks fills rolling news channels. They are the victors, Kalashnikov feux de joie and a city en fête. The green, black and red flag of Libya’s National Transitional Council drapes armoured vehicles and tanks and is waved energetically in a hastily renamed Martyrs’ Square. The rebels have breached fortress Tripoli, and their army has taken over Gaddafi’s Bab […]
>Tripoli – a score and more of invasions
> Two of London’s most iconic buildings were respectively the work of a father and son, Charles and John Barry. Sir Charles Barry was the architect of the Houses of Parliament, including the globally recognised St. Stephen’s Clock Tower (home of Big Ben). His son, Sir John Wolfe-Barry (7 December 1836 – 22 January 1918) was responsible for the construction of Tower Bridge. Sir Charles Barry also […]
>Father and son – iconic architects
> The Göring family name is indelibly associated with Hermann Göring (1893 – 1945). Hermann was one of the leading lights of the National Socialist movement, and, until the regime was consumed and destroyed in the reaping hubris of Allied military advances, held some of the highest offices of state in Nazi Germany. The Trial of the Major War Criminals before the International Military Tribunal at […]
>Albert Göring – the good brother
> Towards the end of the 1870s the Irish Party in the UK and Clan na Gael in the USA agreed on a campaign for land reform and tenant farmer protection. The Irish National Land League was formed in October 1879, just as a succession of poor harvests, the reappearance of potato blight and harsh weather brought many subsistence farmers once more to the brink of […]
>A sort of moral Coventry – the first boycott
> Inflation has been a hot topic in the UK since October 2009 when it broke free of the Bank of England’s target of 2% and starting soaring towards 5%. This week has seen an intense media focus on the issue, with stories highlighting CPI’s rise to 4.4% in July, regulated rail fares increasing by an average of 8%, hikes in gas and electricity prices of […]
>Bursting the bubble
> The Great Famine in Ireland of 1845 – 1852 (An Gorta Mór) saw the island’s population fall by between 20 – 25%. One million would perish of starvation or the related epidemics that swept the country. A further one million emigrated, enlarging the already significant Irish diaspora. A striking fact is that approximately £7 million was spent on famine relief by the British authorities. This, according […]
>Guns versus butter
It was an ambitious project that would unify several European currencies into a single currency, a standard coinage that could be used throughout the member states. It would facilitate trade and tourism and promote peace and unity throughout the Union. It featured standardised coins, differentiated only by national symbols but otherwise boasting the same dimensions and weight. And, ultimately, it failed, members reverting to issuing their […]
Grandfather of the Euro
> The north-south divide is one of the most frequently debated economic, social and political issues in the UK. Politicians and academics argue over its precise boundaries, its implications for social policy and how to mitigate its impact. Some (including Tony Blair) have gone so far as to question whether the divide exists at all. One of the most striking aspects of the divide is its […]
>Nasty, brutish and short – the north-south divide and health
> Ostracism is one of the harshest punishments meted out in a social group. Today it is taken to mean exclusion or banishment from a particular group or society. Many groups have, through history, sought to keep particular groups away from mainstream society – the Cagots in medieval France and the Dalit class in India were both outcasts. Prostitutes, heretics, Jews and adulterers have all suffered […]
>Casting the stone
> The term ‘veto’ today means the power or right vested in one branch of a government to cancel or postpone the decisions of another branch. It is frequently found in the right of the executive (e.g. a president, governor, monarch etc.) to reject bills passed by the legislature. It has one of the simplest etymological explanations, deriving directly from the Latin “I forbid”. The process […]
>I forbid
> In Greek myths the giant Atlas was punished by Zeus to hold the heavens apart from the earth for eternity. His crime was to side with his brother Titans in their war with the Olympians. A small compensation maybe his modern day fame as the etymological source for the word describing a collection of maps. Most dictionaries agree that Atlases get their name because they […]