I am sometimes accused of refusing to give way to pragmatism over logic; the best as the enemy of the good. I duly find recognition of hamid karzai afghanistan’s duly elected president difficult to swallow. He was only declared winner as he refused to meet the conditions his challenger insisted were needed, with some justification, to make the election legitimate. Karzai stared down the international community’s attempts to install a “national unity” coalition. The sound of chickens coming to roost can be heard all around, truisms including that democracy is not just about a vote, but a free media, transparency, accountability, and above all a just rule of law, applied to all. The key question really is whether such a…

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I’ve always tried hard to have a good boss - and one of my best was tomasso padoa-schioppa who left the ecb and became italy’s finance minister in its most sensible government for an age, but one thrown ingloriously out of office. His replacement was not one to bring on his better staff, but for TPS, this was a raison d’etre. I was at a meeting once of elders and betters when he was trying to convice our legal department to start a tailor made series of working papers. At one point he just looked at me and said “you haven’t said anything, what do YOU think”. Going somewhat against the grain, I said I thought it was a…

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My day was dominated by my right hand – and it’s a while since that's happened. I’ve had a real problem dogging me since the summer. Now, 3 months, 2 mri scans and several possible diagnoses later, I know the problem. It’s not arthritis, a trapped nerve or a slipped disc, but a torn ligament. It was caused by my lifting something, and there’s a 60/40 chance it can be fixed with a keyhole operation to shave away the tear and some months of taking it easy. My other half is very worried about surgery, and so I am going to ask whether any alternative course (like keeping it in a splice for weeks) has any chance of fixing it.…

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Letter yesterday from royal mail redirection services, which turned out to be junk mail from ‘furniture village’, offering me 10% off on a specially-made plastic card. This is 4 months after my move, when presumably most have already bought most of any stuff they’re going to. I’d be a bit miffed if I was fv; and as myself am mildly furious. Like all such, it went straight in the bin, but with thought of the waste of producing such things and the uselessness of my ticking every possible box about not wanting junk. My poor mother, who never knows to tick such boxes, is endlessly assaulted by graphic appeals from charities with odd P O Box numbers sending her free…

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EUObserver, a very good website for keeping on top of various brussels dossiers, managed a whole article on joseph stiglitz (nobel winning economist, try globalisation and its discontents) this morning, without mentioning the fact that he’s chair of the world poverty institute at the university of manchester. This is part of a global strategy to brand the uni as one of the world’s very best. It’s a good idea I can only support, but not sure it’s value for money. Anyway, I do like jo, and do strongly agree with his latest musings, that the reaction of the eu’s members states to the financial crisis calls into question its cornerstone and greatest success, the single market – the world’s largest.…

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On my Europe pages are a mass of articles I’ve written on Lisbon, not least the definitive article on how it will affect economic and monetary union. Ooops, I’ve lost you already. Seriously though, it’s unbelievable that the eu – that’s us folks – has spent nine years now talking about a few relatively innocuous changes to the way it works. It’ll all be a bit better if the irish have indeed voted yes, and the czech president’s truculence is overcome, but it’s hardly game-changing. What’s actually happened of course is that several people and polities have suddenly realised over the last few years how very far we have come, and they want to shout about it. It’s natural human…

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A pleasant evening, arranged to talk about how to get like-minded people together in Manchester. And, hey presto, I found myself amongst like-minded people. Even went out for a drink with them, first time I think since I’ve been here. Not that’s it’s been empty, but difficult to squeeze much more beyond work and family, and what little there is spent on emails, letters and the like, as I’ve always been more than happy spending quality time with a keyboard. Youth is wasted on the young and all that. Also today, I published my first column in the Manchester Evening News, which has seemingly cemented my reputation as the local prophet of doom. If only they’d known me a couple…

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A quiet day, for once. Party in the morning for one kid, homework needing to be done for the other - which was who I got. Maths. Cleaned up (it’s my week), made lunch, made dinner and got through myriad of games (with kids) and odds and sods (with computer) in between. Even popped out to buy a heater in anticipation of cold coming soon to my study. Exorcised too about cuts coming soon (of the public spending sort), and intrigued about the wheeze of a “fiscal responsibility bill”. It’s going to be a toss up for effectiveness with the climate change bill, which is going to cut emissions by – come on ladies and gents, do I hear 80%…

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Whisked away to paris for a wonderful, childless weekend. It was glorious sunshine on saturday, but a chill in the air at night, and on sunday we noticed that autumn had sneaked into paris. So much coffee, fine food, photographs, exhibitions, being driven around in a blue 2cv, and beauty on the eye everywhere. Tourist-avoidance ensured a marvellously relaxing, though tantalisingly brief, couple of days. How bourgeois, but how enjoyable, the smiles never left our faces. Paris really is the city that never sleeps, although we did.

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