Virgin Atlantic 301. I’m heading home. At Indira Ghandi Airport I purchased a copy of Peter Francopan’s The Silk Roads – A New History of the World (at half the price of what it costs in the UK – another reason I love India). You may know that I discussed this book in my Postcard…
Drat! Had I arrived but one day earlier I could have heard both the ubiquitous Stephen Fry and superstar French economist Thomas Piketty. But they had already jetted out by the time I arrived, post-haste from my tour of Rajasthan. What’s more, there I was all geared up to hear Niall Ferguson this morning, when…
Monday, 18 January 2016, Mandawa, Rajasthan, India The headline news from Delhi this morning. Capital faces canine crisis: one dog bite every six minutes. The experimental 15 day odd-even car registration entry scheme has just concluded – and air quality has got even worse. India is now free at last to resume normal trading relations…
As seen in the January edition of Master Investor Magazine. 2016, The Year of the Monkey, will be a capricious, unusually nervous year, full of danger and foreboding, not just confined to the financial markets. As ever, nothing is foretold, and no outcome is inevitable. Most people have little concept of how much their lives…
Finally, the groves of academe have awoken to the sound of gnashing teeth. An assembly of the most eminent British historians has formed a campaign group called Historians for Britain[i]. Their aim is to advance the argument, from a historical perspective of course, that the forthcoming UK-EU IN-OUT referendum is a historic opportunity to go…
I’m still at a loss to explain why in a healthy economy our GDP could be growing at between 2 and 3 per cent annually, yet our debt is still mounting. This was Matthew Parris in his column in The Times last Saturday[i]. I respect Matthew as a highly intelligent writer, though as he admits…
During this last trip to France for the New Year something really shocking happened. I was walking through a small town on my way to the boulangerie early one morning to buy some freshly baked croissants for breakfast when I availed myself of a pedestrian crossing to cross the road. And – you won’t believe…
Last month on these pages I explained how the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia emerged from the deserts of Arabia in the early 20th century as an alliance between the ruling House of Saud and the al-Wahhabi clan (War on Terror II: The Janus-Faced Kingdom), who wielded unique religious authority. The conflation of politics and religion…
We asked Victor Hill for his 2016 predictions and, after a few gins, he came back with this: All you need to know about the year ahead. January Three Wise Men arrested on A40 for camel-related offences. Jeremy turns funny. David and François go to a fireworks party. The markets approve. February…
As Mr Cameron sits down to Christmas lunch at Chequers this year he will try to put aside his feelings of foreboding about the year ahead. On a personal level, I certainly hope that he enjoys a restful and happy day with his family. He has, it is said, like Napoleon, an uncanny ability to…
