Putin goes to Crimea – but where’s the Western outrage?

My new piece for RT.com OpEdge.

It’s almost eighteen months since the people of Crimea voted overwhelmingly in a democratic referendum to join the Russian Federation. President Putin visited Crimea, an event that was greeted with an unexpected Western media reaction.
Think back to March 2014, when the Crimean referendum took place. The condemnation of Russia was intense. Putin paid a visit to Crimea in May of that year following the ‘annexation’. This triggered a tough response from Washington. “Crimea belongs to Ukraine and we don’t recognize of course the illegal and illegitimate steps by Russia in that regard,” declared US State Department Spokeswoman Jen Psaki.
Putin’s visit to Crimea this week - when he took a dive in a mini submarine to explore Byzantine era wreckage off Crimea’s Black Sea coast - was noticeably different.

You can read the whole piece here.

The Nazi black book for Britain

My new piece for the Daily Express
 
Seventy-five years ago this month Britain faced imminent invasion.
In the spring of 1940 the Nazis had overrun The Low Countries and France. Hitler and his war machine looked unstoppable.
On July 16 the German dictator, while still hoping that Britain would sue for peace, gave his order for invasion. The plan was for the Luftwaffe to destroy the RAF from mid-August with the fullscale German invasion of Britain, Operation Sea Lion, to follow on September 15.
In compliance with the Führer's orders Informationsheft Grossbritannien, also known as The Gestapo Handbook For The Invasion Of Britain, was put together to be distributed to the occupation forces. It was compiled by SS General Walter Schellenberg. This comprehensive guide to Britain in 1940 makes for a fascinating read.

You can read the whole article here:

Mr Kerry goes to Havana. Time to light the cigars?

My latest piece for RT.com OpEdge.

John Kerry’s visit to Cuba this Friday is the first time a US Secretary of State has visited the Caribbean island in an official capacity since 1945. So is it time to light the Cohibas and celebrate the ending of a decades-long international feud?
Kerry is in Cuba for the official ceremonial flag-raising at the US Embassy in Havana- a symbolic moment in the new rapprochement between the two countries, which began December 17 last year. But perhaps it’s too early to celebrate since there are still some important issues to resolve.

You can read the whole piece here.

The Intelligent Punter's Guide to the USPGA

My latest IP Guide, on the USPGA Championship, which starts later today.

On Cecil the lion, trophy hunting in Africa- and elite attacks on Twitter 'mobs'

You can hear me discussing all these things on Talk Radio Europe, with the wonderful Pippa Jones, here.

Don't Vote for Jeremy Corbyn! -warns the Very Important NeoCon Columnist Cyril Waugh-Monger

My latest piece for Sputnik International.

The big political story in the UK this summer is undoubtedly ‘Corbynmania'. How a 66-year-old antiwar activist and socialist has gone from being the rank 200-1 outsider in the Labour leadership contest election to be the red-hot favorite.....

Not everyone though has welcomed Corbyn's advance. One man who has made repeated warnings about the 'dangers' of Jeremy Corbyn is Cyril Waugh-Monger, a 'Very Important' newspaper columnist for the NeoCon Daily, a patron of the Senator Joe McCarthy Appreciation Society and the author of 'Why the Iraq War was a Brilliant Idea', as well as 'The Humanitarian Case for Bombing Syria'. 
Below are Mr Waugh-Monger's ten commandments to Labour members to not, under any circumstances, vote for Jeremy Corbyn. Remember, we need to take what he has to say very seriously — as, after all, he did reveal to us that Iraq possessed WMDs in 2003.……. 

You can read Cyril Waugh-Monger's ten reasons why we should not vote for Jeremy Corbyn here. 

Merkel forever? Let's hope not

My latest RT OpEdge.

According to Germany's influential news magazine Der Spiegel, Chancellor Angela Merkel has decided to run for a fourth term in power and has already started talks on who will run her campaign.
There’s been no official confirmation yet, but Merkel has already hinted that she would seek re-election.
This autumn she celebrates her 10th anniversary as chancellor, and if she is re-elected in 2017 and serves her full four-year term, she will tie with Helmut Kohl - who was also from the CDU party - as the longest-serving chancellor in the history of the Bundesrepublik.
There are no term limits for German chancellors, meaning that Merkel, who is still only 61, could even go on beyond 2021. If you’re not a fan of 'Mutti', then I’m afraid she could be around for quite a while yet. Which prompts the question: How is that that she has come to dominate German politics in the way that she has?

You can read the whole article here.

My Intelligent Punter's Guides to the 2015/16 Premiership & The Championship

The EPL season starts today. Here's my team-by-team IP Guide.



The Premier League may be one of the most entertaining football competitions in the world, but it has been won by just three different teams in the last 11 years, and is nowhere near as competitive as the Championship (won by a 25-1 shot last year) but that doesn't mean there aren't some value bets to be had. 
We can improve our chances of beating the bookies if we bear in mind some key statistics.

You can read the whole Guide here. Do check it out first before placing any bets!
Also, if planning to have a flutter in the Championship, here's my IP Guide for that too.

Good luck with your football bets!

Stranger than Fiction -the Life of Edgar Wallace, the man who created King Kong by Neil Clark

Duncan Campbell's review of my biography of Edgar Wallace, from Saturday's Guardian:

There is a plaque on Ludgate Circus, at the end of Fleet Street, that says of its dedicatee: “He knew wealth and poverty, yet had walked with Kings and kept his bearings. Of his talents, he gave lavishly to authorship – but to Fleet Street he gave his heart.” How many of the thousands of people who scurry past it each day know that Edgar Wallace, the man commemorated, was once the most widely read author in the world and had also been a newspaper seller, medical orderly, poet, war correspondent, crime reporter, editor, playwright, racehorse owner, director, parliamentary candidate and Hollywood screenwriter responsible for one of the most famous scenes in cinema history?....

You can read the whole review here. 

Let's turn the tables on the trophy hunters- and get justice for Cecil the lion

My latest column for RT.com OpEdge:

There has been global outrage over the brutal killing of Cecil, the best-loved lion in Zimbabwe, who was killed in the cruelest way imaginable by American trophy hunter Walter Palmer.
The anger that so many people have expressed on social media is entirely justified – for if we can’t get angry over the senseless killing of a magnificent animal like Cecil, who has the same right to life as we do, then there really is something wrong with us....

You can read the whole piece here