Charlescrawford

LATEST ARTICLES ( 189 )

• Ukraine, Russia and Europe

  Things have slackened off again here, what with one thing and another. But here is the hefty piece I wrote about Ukraine last week for the Daily Telegraph. To b... Read more

  Posted on 02 March 2014 CURRENT, POLITICS, SOCIETY

• Professional Writing with Style and Impact

  Some of you may be wondering how to improve your written work. It's either too long or too dense or not persuasive or just somehow too clunky and unengaging.... Read more

  Posted on 07 February 2014 CURRENT, POLITICS, SOCIETY

• Public Speaking + Interpreters

  A few days ago I posted this piece from Diplomatic Courier about the hopeless public speaking performance by the French and German Foreign Ministers in... Read more

  Posted on 05 February 2014 CURRENT, POLITICS, SOCIETY

• Slippery Slopes, Boiled Frogs

  Here is my latest piece for PunditWire on the subject of Slippery Slopes. With added Quagmires and Boiled Frogs: Shock! The German Foreign Minister... Read more

  Posted on 05 February 2014 CURRENT, POLITICS, SOCIETY

• RBS? Meet Grammar

  I am locked in battle with the Royal Bank of Scotland over a footling issue with a credit-card. They sent me a card dated Jan 2014 that expires in Feb 2014.... Read more

  Posted on 30 January 2014 CURRENT, POLITICS, SOCIETY

• More on Morality and John Galt

  Here's the next part of my e-discussion with Frances Coppola on Atlas Shrugged and what it all means: CC In Atlas Shrugged Dagny’s shooting of Rusty is,... Read more

  Posted on 30 January 2014 CURRENT, POLITICS, SOCIETY

• That Sarajevo Franco-German Speech Disaster In Full

  I have opened a new writing flank with the fine US diplomatic publication Diplomatic Courier. Here is my first piece. It tells the tragic tale of the... Read more

  Posted on 30 January 2014 CURRENT, POLITICS, SOCIETY

• The Morality of John Galt

  And here is a first part of an online discussion I'm having with Frances Coppola about The Morality of Atlas Shrugged: CC OK, now we start to disagree! There ar... Read more

  Posted on 20 January 2014 CURRENT, POLITICS, SOCIETY

• Eavesdropping

  My latest piece at Telegraph Blogs - on state eavesdropping: What safeguards might we want within this wide range of different activities so that the... Read more

  Posted on 20 January 2014 CURRENT, POLITICS, SOCIETY

• What on Earth is Happening?

  One of the nicer things about the New Year is a tendency for people to step back and look at the Big Picture. Here is a fine example from Jonathan Capehart at... Read more

  Posted on 06 January 2014 CURRENT, POLITICS, SOCIETY

• Happy New Year

  Long time no blog. Family, Christmas, weather, website upgrades, more weather. the usual. Here I am in my most recent DIPLOMAT piece, on East v West and the... Read more

  Posted on 06 January 2014 CURRENT, POLITICS, SOCIETY

• Apartheid Lives

  The heroic achievement of Nelson Mandela was to end apartheid's evil racial legal categorisations and associated injustice in South Africa, right? Alas not:... Read more

  Posted on 16 December 2013 CURRENT, POLITICS, SOCIETY

• Mediation Winners

  As long-standing readers know, when I left the FCO back in 2007 I qualified as a professional Mediator and had ideas about developing that line of work. Read more

  Posted on 13 December 2013 CURRENT, POLITICS, SOCIETY

• Attacked from Moscow!

  I have been sent this noteworthy message (expletives deleted): /blog/south-africa-and-mandela SOVIET-WORSHIPPERS???? YOU FAT NAZI ******* TURD!!!! NO WONDER... Read more

  Posted on 11 December 2013 CURRENT, POLITICS, SOCIETY

• South Africa and Mandela

  I have written three pieces about South Africa, Nelson Mandela and all that. Two for the Commentator. The first here: South Africa’s peaceful transition t... Read more

  Posted on 10 December 2013 CURRENT, POLITICS, SOCIETY

• Ukraine: Now What?

  My latest piece for Telegraph Blogs looks in (very) broad terms at Ukraine: In 1994 the EU Ambassadors had a meeting in Moscow at which they opined on the then... Read more

  Posted on 02 December 2013 CURRENT, POLITICS, SOCIETY

• University Gender Segregation 2.0

  Helpful as I am, I have written a short but comprehensive guide for Universities on the issue of inviting External Speakers. It is intended to replace the... Read more

  Posted on 30 November 2013 CURRENT, POLITICS, SOCIETY

• Professor Ceausescu and Rector Stalin Organise the Seating

  The ‘Guidance’ document External Speakers in Higher Education Institutions put out by Universities UK (‘the Voice of UK Universities’) i... Read more

  Posted on 26 November 2013 CURRENT, POLITICS, SOCIETY

• That Iran Deal and Negotiations Theory

  Telegraph Blogs have published my piece on the latest deal on Iran and its nuclear programmes: All negotiations boil down to a few existential issues:... Read more

  Posted on 24 November 2013 CURRENT, POLITICS, SOCIETY

• Destroying Syria's CW Stocks

  How to destroy Syria's CW stocks, now that OPCW experts say that they have demolished Syria's CW-making facilities? Not so easy to do this within Syria with a... Read more

  Posted on 17 November 2013 CURRENT, POLITICS, SOCIETY