One of the reasons why Barack Obama has so quickly cohered into a figure of legend – a   reason that’s irrelevant and secondary and yet oddly compulsive – is that he has sprung, fully formed, out of an incredible story. As the poor son of a mixed race marriage, a man who found his own way along a path of family values and intelligence, and who embodies a political vision that is liberal, compassionate and essentially non-aggressive, he manages to combine contradictions in a way that few people, and certainly never modern politicians, have ever done. So naturally, as a story person, I was interested in him before I knew that he had published a memoir, Dreams From My Father. Another unconventional move, to have a memoir out before stepping into office, of course, but this one was...

This is from the pre-1948 LNER (London and North Eastern Railway). I remember my mother, who grew up in east London between the wars, saying it used to be known as the Late and Never Early Railway -- a reminder that public moaning about the railways did not begin with...

For the ultimate in home gaming the Nintendo SNES was and still is ‘it’.   With insanely playable and addictive games by the bucket load, the SNES became the best selling 16-bit console in the world and is widely regarded by many as the peak of home video games, with the focus on game play and imagination...

This isn’t the “usual” Boris Godunov we know and love, but the 1869 original. It may be “pure” Mussorgsky, but the composer and Rimsky-Korsakov had good reasons for revising it. No Polish scenes, No Princess Marina, no Kromy Forest. Nonetheless, this is much more than a curiosity because it highlights the fundamentals of the plot, rather than letting us luxuriate in highly-coloured histrionics. Strangely enough, it feels closer to the spirit of Russia. Tim Albery makes the implicit connection between medieval and modern. Russia in “The Time of Troubles”, even for the wealthy was more spartan than the colourful images we see in books and paintings. That’s why the Tsars and the Church were able to overwhelm the peasants. Their authority was built on being able to...

This is the week that was in matters musical … 1877, Ernst Siemens patents the first loudspeaker … 1952, the first British pop chart is published in the New Musical Express … the top six songs are all U.S. acts and are led by Al Martino’s “Here in My Heart” … 1953, the first pocket-sized transistor radio, the Regency TR-1, is mass-marketed … 1957, Patsy Cline is named Most Promising Country & Western Artist in this year’s disc jockey poll by Billboard magazine … 1960, The Shirelles release “Will You Still Love Me Tomorrow” with songwriter Carole King on drums … “Stay” by Maurice Williams and the Zodiacs holds down the #1 slot on the Billboard Pop Chart … the song is notable for...

Following the election of Barack Obama, there has been much talk about the possibility of Britain having a prime minister from an ethnic minority. Sunder Katwala was upbeat about the possibility, Trevor Phillips less so, while Shariq provided an excellent comparison between Britain and the USA’s respective situations. Yet when one is discussing race, a lot hinges on definitions, which can mean different things to different people. Obama isn’t black, but rather mixed-race, yet he was almost universally described as ‘black’. If John McCain had been elected, would he have been billed as the first US president born in Central America? No. Therefore, what we have is a subjective assessment of what constitutes an ethnic minority. Using that as a base then, could we in Britain already...

I grew up in the 1970's, the era of the Red Brigades, the Japanese Red Army and the Red Army Faction. Growing up in Belfast, though, the news was dominated by the actions of our home-grown terrorists factions. Over the years the seemingly endless stream of television programmes and films about the violence in Northern Ireland generated outrage and anger and accusations of sympathy for terrorists.The recent release of a German film telling the story of the Red Army Faction - the Baader-Meinhof Gang - has created a similar response here in Germany. Here is how Spiegel summarised the debate shortly after the film's release:Amid accusations its makers are guilty of "hero worship" and glorifying murderous activists with "terrorist-chic," a new German film that recreates the dramatic history of...

BBC and the Open University will be co-producing a documentary looking at the impact of technology on the lives of British families over the last 40 years. Related posts:Spammers target the first letter of your email address The amount of spam that you receive may be related...The HexBug: The Intelligent Robotic Bug…or Maybe you Fancy Building Your Own? Since I can remember, I've always fancied my own intelligent...Firefox 3.1 Beta 1 Released for Testing Mozilla has made the free upgrade to Firefox 3 available... Related posts brought to you by Yet Another Related Posts Plugin....

No, neither had I until recently - but, perhaps second only to Mikhail Gorbachev, he was the man behind perestroika and glasnost. Many people in today's Russia revile him as the man who brought down the Soviet Empire. As Russia becomes increasingly autocratic and seeks to become a resurgent world power, perhaps we should remember Alexander Nikolaevich Yakovlev. You can read about him...

Thanks for your comments on my last post. It's been an interesting week for our blogs - they've had wider attention than usual, and some may have questioned our approach as a result.I said I'd make the case for why diplomats should blog. So, here's a quick history of Foreign Office blogs to start: We launched our blogging platform in September 2007 by commissioning 6 bloggers who represented a good cross section of Foreign Office work. We wanted our bloggers to tell stories, using a personal, engaging tone of voice, reaching out to new audiences, bypassing traditional media, inviting and responding to comments. We've had a steady turnover of bloggers since then. The Hansard Society have evaluated our approach. And having proved the concept within the Foreign Office, we opened up the blogs...

This is a photograph of what’s left of the car park that used to be on the corner of Rochester Row and Greycoat Place. In the top left-hand corner, you can see the windows of the offices of 33 Greycoat Street, now occupied by the Commission for Social Care Inspection. In 1999, the Audit Commission took on that building as part of it’s growth in preparation for inspecting Best Value (wha’ that?) and one of those first floor offices later became the place where my manager took residence and I’d sit with her, trying to avoid conversations about how well I was doing, what I wanted to do next and how the Commission “could help in my development”. I mainly stared out of the window, at that car park and wondered how long she would wait to change the...

He's at it again, Britain's oldest unrepetant communist once again predicting the downfall of capitalism, just like he did in his terrible book The Age of Extremes.A word to the not-wise, Eric: it ain't gonna happen. No-one's going back to the socialism you love because it was an oppressive crock of shit with a brilliant record for pig-iron production but bugger all else. Capitalism might well adapt, as it has done before; it might incorporate aspects of socialism, or at least progressivism, as it has done before; but it ain't going away.Every time someone has something to sell and someone else wants to buy it there's capitalism. However it modifies itself, however we choose to regulate it, it will survive better and for longer than his beloved socialism...

Most people around the world are familiar with America's first president (George Washington) and third (Thomas Jefferson), but many have not heard of the second. He was John Adams who served two terms as Washington's Vice-President before himself becoming President for a single term (1797-1801). Later his son John Quincy Adams also became (the sixth) President (1825-1829). I've just finished viewing a seven-part television series made by HBO on the life of John Adams. It has rightly been a great success, winning no less than 13 Emmys. The lead role is taken by Paul Giamatti who gives an outstanding performance among many fine portrayals. Ironically the whole series was directed by Briton: Tom Hooper. He is the son of Richard Hooper whom I know mainly through his work as former Deputy...

Review: Gandhi & Churchill by Arthur Herman, Churchill's Wizards by Nicholas Rankin, and Masters and Commanders by Andrew Roberts Three fine books, including a masterpiece by Andrew Roberts, add invaluable insights into Britain's great wartime leader, says Richard...

This is the title of a book written by my good friend Jeremy Mitchell who served with me on the Ofcom Consumer Panel. Jeremy was born in 1929 and his father George Oswald Mitchell (G.O.M.) was one of the few British soldiers to serve right through the First World War from its outbreak on 5 August 1914 to the Armistice on 11 November 1918, the 90th anniversary of which we mark this Remembrance Sunday. "Shapnel And Whizzbangs" - subtitled "A tommy in the trenches 1914-18" - is Jeremy's graphic account of his father's war based on the trench diary and notes that G.O.M. wrote at the time. George Oswald Mitchell asSergeant Royal Engineers Special Brigade In a wonderful case of cross-generational co-operation, Jeremy's 12 year old grandson Eddie has created a web site for his...

This is the week that was in matters musical … 1955, Elvis Presley is named Most Promising Country & Western Artist in Billboard’s annual poll of disc jockeys … sadly, the relatively unknown country artist never quite lives up to their expectations … 1960, Greg Allman turns 13 and gets a guitar for his birthday … 14-year-old brother Duane eclipses him quickly on that instrument while Greg excels at organ and vocals … they’ll play together in the Kings, the Allman Joys, and Hourglass, before they rule southern rock with the Allman Brothers Band, which they’ll form in 1969 … 1963, “Louie Louie” is released by the Kingsmen … one of the most-covered songs of all time, it is charged that the slurred lyrics are...

I won't be adding much to the torrent of abuse that has been heaped upon Hazel Blears following her ill-advised speech to the Hansard Society. Ever since Comment is Free cannily ran a juicy extract - accusing political bloggers of corrosive cynicism, failing to "add value" to the political debate, and daring to express opinions without first being elected - the subject has been blogged to death. Almost all bloggers of note - and many of little or no note - have emoted about the awfulness of Blears, her condescending attitude, her supposed stupidity, her Rosa Klebbish tendencies, and - rather more thoughtfully - what the speech reveals about the authorities' apparent disdain for true debate and their fear of public opinion, their paralysis in the face of a new media that they haven't yet...

New Age. New Era. New Icon. With such a plethora of images and commentary from which to choose at end of this momentous week, for me one of the most interesting stories to emerge, is that of American street artist Shepard Fairey.     Not as well known in the U.K., the speed at which his image of Barack Obama became a cultural phenomenon surprised many, including the artist...

It appears that Lord Mayor of Belfast, Tom Hartley, is absenting himself from the commemoration at the cenotaph at City Hall on Sunday. Although Sinn Féin has cited prior engagements in the Republic, Hartley and his advisers must have known the significance of the day long before any alternative arrangements were organised. Alex Maskey made great play of staging his own acts of remembrance during his tenure as mayor, arguing that as representative of all the people of Belfast, he was bound to do so. Hartley himself marked the anniversary of the Battle of the Somme and has observed other similar ceremonies. Hartley’s absence is convenient, at a time when Sinn Féin seems to be hardening its intolerance towards unionism and any exhibition of British identity in Northern Ireland....

From The Archive is a special Friday feature. It features posts from my earlier (now-deleted) blogs: Stuff & Nonsense and Little Frigging In The Wold, and a few items from previous versions of A Tangled Rope that I feel deserve reprinting here, mainly as a way of archiving them. The dates are only approximate, I’m afraid, and there is a possibility that some links may no longer work (although, I will try to remember to test the links before republishing the piece). Worldwide Admire Your Own Genitals Day - 23/05/06 Now, it just so happens that today is the day for doing stuff that there is no other special day for. Only yesterday, for example, was National Staring At Cheese Day. So, no doubt you spent several deeply-fulfilling hours gazing in awe at a Wensleydale, or - for...

Relive a lost spent youth with videos of classic Nintendo SNES console games. by laffer35   by webnations   by Cashmoneyallstars   Related articles: 11 October, 2008 — Amiga Games In Video (0) 28 September, 2008 — Spectrum Remembered Videos...

It’s just three miles and a lifetime’s journey from the South Side of Chicago to Grant Park, and I can remember every step. How marvellous it was that the US election race this year should find its long-awaited finish line at the same spot as the Chicago Marathon — one of many high points I’ve shared with this incredible country through a relationship that stretches right across my adult life. I entered the United States late one August night in 1981. Seventeen hours out of Halifax, Nova Scotia, we drove across a bridge and into Maine. Next morning, six hours and a brief stop in Portland later, I stepped wearily off the bus in downtown Boston — completing my journey from England to New England, where the history of this great nation had started. That visit...

The great things about visiting other people in hospital as a wheelchair user include the fact that everywhere is flat, there are plenty of spacious lifts and nobody bats an eyelid at your presence. The bad things about visiting other people in hospital are much the same for everyone, and thus are bound to outweigh the good.My Gran took a bad fall on Friday night. She's not that badly hurt; nothing was broken, but she fell on her face hard enough to knock herself out, she is rather confused and terribly distressed about the whole thing. She always been prone to confusion and depression, but following this concussion she apparently found out that she is much older than she thought she was (that is, how old she thought she was when she came round). She thought she was sixty-three,...

Twitter Technology Blog: We Got Data Overview of the current options for Twitter integration. (tags: web2.0 web twitter tech statistics socialnetworking search rest programming tweetmarks xmpp social-networking) IHTFP Hack Gallery: Fire Hose Drinking Fountain This is such an ace photo that I had to share it (I found it from reading a comment on the Twitter blog, go figure). (tags: history funny education mit firehose fire-hose fire-hose-drinking-fountain drinking-fountain firehose-drinking-fountain photo)...

A few months ago, when collecting leaflets in the (now closed) tourist board centre in Greenwich, I purchased a book of Docklands history, published by The Island History Trust - mainly as it had two maps which really caught my attention. I’ll mention the second on another day, but the inside cover had a map of the fortifications along the Thames in the time of the Spanish Armada - coincidentally exactly 420 years ago. The bit which really caught my eye though were two piers across the river at Blackwall - which very nearly sealed off the river, and would seem to have had cannons mounted on the very ends of the piers. Any ship which had managed to get past the Tilbury barrage would then face going up river right into the face of cannon fire. The below is a scan of the map I...

The last of Mark Mardell's posts on his BBC blog deals with Germany's identity and the country's relationship to its past. Mardell spoke with Bastion, a 24 year old history student:What does it mean to drink beer and love football? I don't know - I drink coke and love basketball. I don't know what it means to be German. I am Berlin, born here, I love this city but I don't know anything about being...

This is the week that was in matters musical … 1928, a candle starts a fire in a French Gypsy caravan…the left hand of 18-year-old guitarist Django Reinhardt is badly burned, leaving two fingers useless…with his right leg also injured, Django is bedridden for 18 months and uses that time for therapy, rebuilding his guitar chops so that by the mid-1930s he is a master of swing guitar and ultimately one of the best guitarists in any genre… 1956, Delta bluesman Tommy Johnson dies from a heart attack after playing at a party…a contemporary of 1920s Mississippi Delta blues great Charlie Patton, Johnson used a simple-but-effective guitar style to back up his vocals that often employed a haunting falsetto… like Robert Johnson, Tommy was rumored to have...

A generation on, Tom Wolfe's paean to America's space heroes seems like an...

The British once had an empire that spread across the world and which was demonstrated by colouring our bits of the map in a lovely shade of pink, based on the colour of British officers after a few months in the sun. The old empire died out, what with people deciding they’d rather look after their own affairs rather than leaving it up to a small collection of people who muttered about ‘savages’ and were permanently sunburned. But could a new British Empire be arriving at the servant’s entrance? A British ex-pat living in Spain has sneakily installed himself as Mayor of a Costa Blanca town. Rather than bother with the notion of running for office or elections or any of that nonsense, our plucky Brit merely got himself to a minor council position then waited patiently until...