Top stories: news and views from around the world

We’re not living under Stalin so why do we let literary nincompoops wave clenched fists at us?
“The only thing that gives these made-up decrees any authority is obeying them.” – Lionel Shriver By Trevor Grundy In his Introduction to the first edition of Eugene… Read more >

Seawater eats away at St Mark’s Basilica threatening Venice and the Christian world’s greatest artworks
Basilica di San Marco, with its 13th century mosaics and 125 types of rare marble. It is an exquisite shrine encapsulating the Venetian Republic’s vision of itself as the successor… Read more >

Achilles in Afghanistan: Combat betrayal, liars in public places and the onset of the berserk state in former soldiers
Reaching Out, Battle for Hill 484 by Larry Burrows By Trevor Grundy The head of Britain’s armed forces, General Sir Nick Carter, has stunned former military commanders and… Read more >

A 394-year walk with British royalty has done us harm, says top Caribbean historian and reparatory justice campaigner
Sir Hilary Beckles signing a book called ‘Britain’s Black Debt.‘ It tells how some of England’s best respected families sprung from nowhere until they entered the Caribbean and made billions… Read more >

Boorish Johnson finds the destruction of mining communities in Scotland something to joke about
PLONKER ON A PLANK: Boris Johnson, aged 15, at Eton College in 1979. How much longer will this rude and arrogant man run Britain? By Trevor Grundy Long-stilled… Read more >

Russian oligarchs join queue to donate and shake hands with Prince Charles of Bucksinhand Palace
Emma Raducanu, winner of this year’s US Open – Picture from front page of Private Eye 17-30 September 2021 By Trevor Grundy On the BBC’s flagship radio Today,… Read more >

Mike Hartnack (1945-2006) – A great African journalist who will never be forgotten
Michael Hartnack was one of Zimbabwe’s finest journalists and foreign correspondents. He died fifteen years ago on August 2, 2006 after suffering a heart attack while attending an art exhibition… Read more >