@FrancisUrquhart Paxman was a terrible interviewer, because he made people stonewall. The great interviewers were Brian Walden, Ludovic Kennedy, Robin Day, and David Frost. (View Post)

Botswana is a great success story. Like Lee Kwan Yiew, Sir Seretse Khama was a statesman. There are so few of them. (View Post)

The Union of South Africa was a wrong turn. Cape Colony had a pretty low property qualification, which meant plenty of Black, Indian, and Coloured voters had the vote (something the Nationalists spen… (View Post)

IMHO, the best hope for that country is if the Western Cape, which has a competent government, effectively secedes. (View Post)

There's a real chance the Assyrian stuff would be destroyed by fanatics, in Iraq. (View Post)