So does a section of the US left (eg the New Yorker). In each case, they’re treating the UK as phantom version of what the US will become, if their opponents get elected. (View Post)

Being well-educated does not make anybody virtuous, nor does it mean they possess good judgment. (View Post)

Something I’ve never understood is how the Moghul Empire fell apart so swiftly. It was one of the world’s great powers in 1700. It was in free fall by 1720, and Nadir Shah destroyed the last of its p… (View Post)

TBF, most Caribbean countries have done pretty well, post independence, on the back of being tax havens, and tourist centres. Haiti and Cuba are the obvious exceptions. (View Post)

Industrialisation has floated almost every boat, over 200 years. The pre-industrial world was an even more extractive, profit-seeking, and cruel, place than the world of today. (View Post)