Tim Hedges's Blog

This blog's sympathy to George H Bush, the President who succeeded Reagan, who, at the age of 91, has had a bad fall and broken a bone i...

Qn. What do the following people have in common: Joerg Haider, Yanis Varoufakis, Silvio Berlusconi, George Papandreou? A. They have all be...

Apparently for the christening of the royal princess, as, apparently for her brother, water from the River Jordan will be flown in. Apart ...

There are stories that sorting out the structural problems of the Palace of Westminster might cost £7 billion. It is perfectly obvious t...

I remember back to the start of the Iraq war. Tony Blair had persuaded large numbers of his own party to back a war but needed cross party ...

A HA! I have been trying to get into this blog for some time using one of these tablet things. Harsh words were spoken about Google and it...

This blog says farewell to Andy Fraser, the best heavy bassist in the world. He joined Free at 15, having already played for John Mayall. ...

The general election campaign seems to have begun in earnest at the beginning of January. Now, in mid-March, there are still seven weeks to ...

One has interesting discussions with tailors. sometimes, but I really cannot imagine discussing In Vitro Fertilisation with one. Such, howev...

I knew someone who affected Balkan Sobranie cigarettes, once. They were expensive and tasted like old socks, but they came in different colo...

Top Gear used to be owned jointly by the BBC and Jeremy Clarkson and a colleague. The BBC bought Clarkson out last year at a cost of million...

I see that the euro has fallen to €1.40/£, which, interestingly, was the rate it was launched at in 1999 (bank accounts only). I predicted...

The Americans are calling for increased defence expenditure in Europe. The fact is that they are tiring of defending an ungrateful but rich ...

Apparently England's one-day cricket captain, Eoin Morgan, has refused to sing the national anthem. In football, cricket and other spo...

Also more tosh on Radio 4 about the number of pandas. These creatures were carnivores which became too lazy to hunt and sat on their backs...

Incredibly I heard a discussion on BBC radio to the effect that the reason we liked Star Trek's Mr Spock was that he suffered racial con...

Appalling scenes in Rome last week as Dutch football fans rioted and damaged a fountain. Read about it in The Commentator - it's free!...

There has been a lot of talk about winning and losing, and very little about what is best for the people of Greece. It seems Mr. Tsipras h...

There's a lot of confusion in the press and the markets today to the effect that Greece will request an extension of its bailout, thus c...

After the appalling killing of a Jordanian pilot, Jordan has joined seriously in the fight against Islamic State. Now with the murder of a n...

A conversation I have had this morning 'Hello Mr. Hedges, this is the anti-fraud department at XXXX Bank. Can we ask you some question...

Possibly to Ed Milliband's annoyance, the people seem to be getting bored or confused or both on this business of tax avoidance. Rathe...

It seems the British police asked newspaper distributor John Menzies for a list of newsagents stocking Charlie Hebdo and, incredibly, were g...

Do read the Commentator , high quality journalism which is free. My latest article is about the political importance of barbers.

A report shows that 1,000 people a month are dying unnecessarily in the British Health Service. I can't say I'm surprised, but the...

'Are Merkel and Hollande going to sell out Ukraine?' asked one paper. Now, stop me if I've said this before, but I'm sure ...

I am grateful to Guido for pointing out that in the last quarter of 2014 Apple sold 74.5 million devices. That is to say that in just thre...

This blog covered the events in Paris earlier this month with some scepticism. It is one thing to say 'Je suis Charlie', that is to ...

It seems one of my New Year's predictions has already come good: that Syriza would win the election in Greece but without a majority. ...

Benedict Cumberbatch, the actor, has apologised for his language on American television. He says he is 'devastated' to have caused o...

The flags were at half mast in London yesterday and for a while no one knew whether it was for King Abdullah of Saudi Arabia or for Leon Bri...

Delighted to hear Nigel Farage saying the NHS will have to move to an insurance based system within ten years. The true ghastliness of the...

Happy birthday to ANSA, the Press agency, which is 70 years old. It performs an excellent service, unbiased although Italian-centred. Its we...

As I write, the pound sterling has risen dramatically against the euro. The reason is that the markets believe that the European Central B...

So what was it all about, this march in Paris, repeated all over France? Some say 3.7 million people came out. Well....according to Piers ...

And I'm afraid a miasma of hypocrisy is settling over the Charlie Hebdo affair. François Hollande, who has done more than most to cover ...

A good article by Catherine Bennett in the Observer today pointing out that there seems to be one law for Ched Evans and another for Roman P...

Do read The Commentator - it's free. My latest article describes Berlusconi's comeback

An aide to John 'Vince' Cable, the Business Secretary, has interfered in the talk about Ched Evans, a footballer who was convicted o...

I should have begun the year by giving you my forecasts but to be honest they're more often wrong than right. OK, here we go. In the...

The supremely irritating TripAdvisor - why can't they spell adviser properly? - has just sent me an email entitled 'Paris in 2015 - ...

The problem now appears to be how people react, in France and elsewhere. France has around 6 million muslims, the highest of any Western Eur...

By the way I'm not sure I want to hear too much from the French about freedom of speech. If Charlie Hebdo, instead of printing cartoo...

There is only one way, in my view, to see the attack on the Charlie Hebdo offices in Paris: it was an attack on us all, from the great inter...

I have neglected this blog over the last year, partly through illness and partly through getting involved in other projects. It is very much...

I read that thousands of people are estimated to have been given British passports even though they are criminals or otherwise quite unsuita...