My latest column is on UK’s nuclear weapon system

Specialists in nuclear deterrence occupy a world that requires the coldly rational contemplation of completely insane courses of action. Under normal circumstances, this is a world that non-specialists can ignore. But, every now and then, nuclear deterrence becomes a subject of wide public concern. Now is just such a time in Britain.

It is a sunny summer afternoon in London, and the courtyard of St John restaurant is bright and airy. Inside the dining room, however, things are much darker. There is little natural light, the walls are white, the lamps are black and the waiters pad silently around in the gloom.

St John has a reputation as a restaurant for people with a serious interest in food – which makes me wonder why Oleg Deripaska has arranged to meet there. Deripaska, a 42-year-old tycoon who made his fortune by dominating Russia’s aluminium industry, is known for many things: his enormous wealth, his prowess as an industrialist, his political connections and the rumours about his past that have seen him denied visas to visit the US.

Continue reading “Lunch with the FT: Oleg Deripaska”

As we have all just seen at the World Cup, staging a major international sporting event can be a great way of advertising a country. But it also involves big risks: the minor risks involve logisitics, expensive stadiums and disappointed tourists. The biggest risk is terrorism.

International security analysts are increasingly worried that the Commonwealth Games which will be staged in Delhi in October could be a very tempting target for jihadist terrorists, who have already struck India many times. Continue reading "India, terrorism and the Commonwealth Games"

France’s lower house has voted to ban women from wearing full-face veils (the burka and the niqab) in public places. The measure still has to pass the upper house and will face a constitutional challenge. But the strength of the majority was startling: parliament voted 335-1 in favour. Even counting for over 200 abstentions, that is quite a statement.

Liberal opinion here in Britain is generally that a burka ban is intolerant and borderline racist. It is pointed out that only about 2,000 women in France (of a Muslim population of 5m) wear the most restrictive face-covering versions of Islamic garb covered by the law. Liberal critics say that it is not upto the state to legislate what women should wear, and that the new law panders to the French far right.

I am not sure what, I think - which is why I’m not going to write a newspaper column about it. But, at the least, I think the issues are more complicated than the standard liberal reaction allows. Continue reading "France and the full-face veil"

My latest column is on trading between America and China.

Multinational companies still have a vaguely villainous image for much of the left. But they are one of the most powerful forces in the world pushing for peace, prosperity and international co-operation.

Sports tournaments are meant to be celebrations of youth. But last night’s World Cup final made me feel very old. First, there was the sight of poor old Nelson Mandela being trundled around the pitch - he’s about to turn 92 and I’m afraid he looks a little, how shall we say, past it. And then the cameras zeroed in on Jack Taylor, the last Brit to referee a World Cup final: the 1974 game between the Dutch and the Germans. I’m afraid, I remember that game with crystal clarity - as if it were yesterday, in fact. But the fact that Mr Taylor is now in his eighties, is a reminder that it was all a very long time ago - and I’m also getting old. Continue reading "Age, youth and the World Cup final"

Until very recently, I’ve been almost instinctively gloomy about Greece. It seemed to me that the combination of unpayable debts, deflationary cuts in spending and a febrile national political culture was the perfect formula for further political and economic trouble.

But maybe the Greeks will surprise us. The first stages of economic reform seem to have been pushed through with impressive speed and resolution. Late last week, parliament voted to increase Greece’s pension age - an important step both for controlling spending and for improving the country’s image in the rest of Europe.

Continue reading "Could Greece come right after all?"