What the Paper Said 1923

Week Ending 17 June 1923

Coup in Bulgaria; Britain's fastest train; General Grierson gets a biography; Dzerzhinsky thinks he can run a railway.

Week Ending 10 June 1923

The workers' paradise (again); Britain gets a new MP; the FBI gets royal approval.

Week Ending 27 May 1923

Hitler and his allies. Britain gets a new Prime Minister.

Week Ending 20 May 1923

The fall out from the Irish deportations; the limits of states' rights; the right size of underground trains; before the satellite dish. 

Week Ending 13 May 1923

In this week's episode: A socialist on Churchill; the perils of modern education; the Ulster Irish on the border; Austrian hyperinflation; the great pram race and someone throws an egg at a politician.

Week Ending 6 May 1923

In this episode - as well as headlines big and small: FA Cup Final chaos; a banker predicts the Great Depression; Churchill on communism; race relations in South Africa and America.

Week Ending 29 April 1923

In this episode; so, who is responsible for the BBC? The confusing Lord Curzon; the realities of hyperinflation.

Professor Barth's YouTube series on money.

Week Ending 22 April 1923

In this episode: The Prime Minister is fighting fit; what happens to you if you are found with a gun; the head of Oxford University flexes his muscles; Hitler is on a charge; Parliament defies the will of the people.

Week Ending 15 April 1923

In this episode the blessings - or otherwise - of socialism. Also in this episode, how Bulgaria deals with communists, Sunday trading and the slave trade... in Ethiopia

Week Ending 8 April 1923

In this episode: When will the robots take over? What is a jury of matrons? What is a bride-elect and do London bus drivers make good nurses?

Week Ending 1 April 1923

In this episode: Oscar Wilde's paramour goes bonkers. Also in this episode cycle safety, housing, immigration, air pollution, drugs and an ossuary. Oh, and Andrew Bonar Law is unwell.

Week ending 25 March 1923

In this week’s episode: the Debate on Capitalism. Also in this week’s episode: the man who started the Great Depression is in court; the BBC undermines national defence; is the University of London under attack by Ukraine?; the inventor of the supermarket makes a killing, or so he thinks; London luvvies are a bunch of racists, Top Gear gets trolled by the London General Omnibus Company and some people have gone to sleep.

Catch-up ending 18 March 1923

In this episode I catch up on what has been happening in the world since the last episode. 

Week ending 11 February 1922

 

In this episode: Overhead electrification; the legality of crystal sets; US immigration law; how hospitals raise money; the legality of the French occupation of the Ruhr and Churchill writes a book.

 

Week Ending 4 February 1922

In this episode: Nazis go on a demo; a policeman learns his fortune; Irish houses burn; and I learn that there were two Ku Klux Klans.

Episode dealing with Italian Fascism I refer to is here.

Week Ending 28 January 1923

In this episode: von Moltke’s thoughts, Croydon holds a referendum; Opium in China; Education in the Soviet Union; Hitler holds a demonstration and drink driving charges are dropped.

The Annika Mombauer book I mention is entitled Helmuth von Moltke and the Origins of the First World War

The Simon House book I mention is entitled Lost Opportunity: The Battle of the Ardennes 22 August 1914

Sorry to say it but I seem to have misremembered Beadle’s lecture on the Marne. I thought it was on YouTube but I suspect it was part of a Zoom event and never published. Shame. But as a consolation there is this lecture by Beadle on the origins of the Schlieffen Plan. 

Week Ending 21 January 1923

France can't win; Hitler speaks; William Robertson speaks; the Royal Engagement; Civil Service working hours and a drug user is jailed.

Ross Beadle on Sir William Robertson.

The 8 October Episode

 

Week Ending 14 January 1923

In this episode: France occupies the Ruhr; the FitzRoy case draws to a close; Henry Ford stands for President and The Times examines communist psychology

Week Ending 31 December 1922: Railway Grouping Special

Britain’s railways are to be forcibly merged into four groups. We learn about the aims of the scheme, what fares were like at the time and the prospects for electrification.

 

 

Week Ending 24 December 1922

In this episode my further musings on reparations; the President of Poland is assassinated; Another twist in the Fitzroy Affair; Christmas Day activities and the British army leaves Ireland.

Week Ending 17 December 1922

In this episode: Reparations. Yup, that's it. Not the normal format but back in 1922 there is a big conference on the horizon and The Times has several good articles on the issue so I thought, "Why not do a special?" And here it is.

Week Ending 10 December 1922

In this episode: Ulster joins the UK; a judge warns of the danger of press barons; The Crown Prince of Germany publishes his memoirs; Britain prepares for the next war; as does Germany; the Fitzroy case drags on; communists receive a lesson in etiquette; Bevan is convicted; the US murder rate is up.

Week Ending 3 December 1922

In this week’s episode: the march of the unemployed; Haig gets a biography; whither the battleship?; Prohibition doesn’t work; the Ku Klux Klan;  Greek commanders shot.

What the Paper Said: Week Ending 26 November 1922

In this episode: a Communist addresses Parliament; Childers is executed; Warnings are issued about celebrity and whisky; the Ku Klux Klan get a mention and the Soviets set up Potemkin factories.

What the Paper Said: Week Ending 19 November 1922

In this episode: the British find out who they voted for, an Irishman is put on trial for treason, an Ottoman Sultan decides that he would rather not be put on trial for treason, Mussolini tells them what he thinks and some people really, really don't get Poppy Day.

What the Paper Said: Week Ending 12 November 1922

In this episode: Bonar Law says very little; the founder of the Welfare State has a go at the author of War of the Worlds; Mussolini ponders how he will make the trains run on time; Erskine Childers is captured and Britain prepares to mark Armistice Day.

What the Paper Said: Week Ending 5 November 1922

In this episode: Mussolini's arrival in power, Britain's election, women on juries, the decline of the aristocracy, the death of Edwin A. Pratt and Soviet election practices.

What the Paper Said: Week Ending 29 October 1922

In this episode things look grim for Italian democracy; Britain does lots of democracy and there is a little reminder of when Britons were refugees.

What the Paper Said: Week Ending 22 October 1922

Lloyd George is no longer in trouble (because he is no longer in office); Sir Almeric Fitzroy faces justice; The BBC, or at least a BBC comes into existence; and some nonsense from Bavaria about some bloke called Hitler.

What the Paper Said: Week Ending 15 October 1922

Lloyd George is in trouble, the perils of Hyde Park, real fascism, the unvaccinated of Kingston and communism and classical music.

What the Paper Said: Week Ending 8 October 1922

In this episode one ex-Chancellor bashes the French, while another ex-Chancellor has some bad news on the reparations front. HMS Lion faces a grim fate as do Tibetan beggars. Finally, the Soviets identify the lurking danger that is Charles Dickens.

What the Paper Said: Week Ending 24 September 1922

In this episode, Lloyd George makes a lot of enemies, the joys of rent control, cocaine and the legal profession and the Windsor train mystery.

What the Paper Said: Week Ending 17 September 1922

In this episode I pick out articles on the Fall of Smyrna, the illicit trade in cocaine, the need to pasteurize milk and an extraordinary claim of corruption in the Soviet army.

What the Paper Said: Week Ending 1 October 1922

In this episode I pick out articles on the continuing crisis in Turkey, the uses and abuses of film of sporting events, Lord Rothermere and the Daily Mail and the latest on London Underground.

What the Paper Said: Week Ending 10 September 1922

This is the first ever “What the Paper Said”. In this episode I pick out articles on German inflation, Soviet executions and a report into shell shock. 

Brian and I chat for the last time

This conversation was recorded on 5 October 2021 and Brian died 10 days later. It was the last time we spoke.

This was - not surprisingly - an odd conversation. It was dominated by Brian's knowledge that he was not long for this world. It was also dominated by all sorts of connectivity problems. And when all was said and done it wasn't all said and done because Brian called me back because there was a bit he'd forgotten.

Brian had something on his mind. Regular listeners will know that at the beginning of this year we recorded a conversation on the Industrial Revolution and that our most recent conversation whilst starting on the Middle Ages eventually moved on to the Industrial Revolution again. What Brian had on his mind was something to do with the works of Deirdre McCloskey and Emmanuel Todd. What that "something" was I didn't know and still don't. Brian could be a difficult man to follow especially if you're a dullard like me. If you have ever listened to a few of these conversations you will be familiar with my floundering in Brian's wake, not only not understanding what he has just said but not even being able to find the right questions to ask in order to get some clarification. So it is here. It was bad enough at the best of times. Anyone who knew Brian will know that he was very good at dominating a conversation. He was not an easy man to interrupt and that did not get any easier after he was diagnosed with cancer.

So, I failed to pin down just what it was that Brian wanted to say. Maybe it will be obvious to others who are more familiar with McCloskey and Todd or with Brian's own thinking. Maybe we'll have to leave it to some ideological cryptanalysts to decode Brian's remarks. At least there's something to decode.

We also talk about Brian's Last Friday (30:30) which was held on 3 September 2021 in central London. This meant an awful lot to him. 

We also talk about Tommy Robinson (38:00). This was something I wanted to talk about. Well, actually I didn’t but Brian was always most insistent that we should alternate when it came to introducing the subject. So it was to the end. 

And then we talk about Germany and the Industrial Revolution - the bit Brian had forgotten.

So, it was already pretty disjointed before the connectivity issues made it even more so. I have also kept a lot of stuff in that I would normally have edited out. Why? Because it feels like the right thing to do. I can’t express it better than that.

There ought to be another paragraph here in which I come to a conclusion. A concluding paragraph even. Something about what a joy and a privilege it has been to have had these conversations routinely over the last 5 years and intermittently for a lot longer. But I don't have the words. Brian was special.

If you have any comments to make on this please make them at Samizdata.

Brian Quotes

"The big history date of the last thousand years was the wealth explosion and it happened in Britain."

"Emmanuel Todd is quite open about his admiration for the Anglosphere."

"Todd has very interesting things to say about Homo Americanus which he thinks is very similar to original human nature."

"Liberty, equality and fraternity spread in Europe after Napoleon was defeated."

"McCloskey and Todd between them could have cracked this but in fact they needed the intervention of Micklethwait."

"I want to make it clear that I attach great importance to my own opinions about this."

"…and if they [McCloskey and Todd] both get their bits right then between them they have it all, they have the whole story. As it is the only one with the whole story is me."

"I am torn in half about whether America will shake itself loose of all this woke nonsense."

"What I find interesting about Tommy Robinson is that people succeed in creating this false idea of what he is and then if you disagree you are accused of supporting this false person."

Notes

1. The Todd podcast.
2. Battle of Acre.
3. The Battle of Acre book.
4. Lineages of Modernity; a review by Tyler Cowen.
5. Brian's blog post on the gap between the English Civil War and the Industrial Revolution. 
6. Try as I might I cannot find any reference - by Brian or otherwise - to the duke - or any other potentate - who wanted to imprison Beethoven but couldn’t.

Brian and I chat about how lucky we are to NOT live in the Middle Ages

Brian died on the 15th October which seems difficult to believe when you listen to him here. Yes, there are signs of the lung cancer that eventually killed him but otherwise he is alert, keen, articulate, thoughtful. All very Brian.

But, but… please don’t be encouraged or discouraged on that account. For Brian it was the ideas that mattered. We allude to that in this very podcast. I am sure he would far prefer people to listen to this because of the ideas expressed than for sentimental reasons.

In the preliminary discussion to this Brian suggested that rather than determining a title for these talks in advance we should have the chat and then decide what the title should be. This chat was going to be the first try out of this idea. Unfortunately, we got disconnected in our prime (hence the rather abrupt ending). Also, it’s still difficult to tell what we actually ended up talking about. Yes, we start off talking about the Middle Ages but we very quickly start talking about the Industrial Revolution and how lucky we are to live in the age we do. Let's see if I can make something of that. Along the way we talk about the Common Law, Europe’s revolutions and plenty of other things. 

The beginning is plagued by connectivity issues which I’ve kept in partly because I am too lazy to take them out and partly to demonstrate what we were up against but, believe me, it does get better.

We recorded one more conversation after this which I will publish as soon as I get round to it. 

Notes

1. That King John podcast? Might be this one.
2. James II did indeed get a nose bleed at a bad time.
3. The Kink. 
4. The Great Stink was in 1858.
5. Semmelweiss.
6. The Industrial Revolution podcast we refer to is here.
7. I, of course, mean the Taiping Rebellion.
8. The podcast about German Second World War code-breaking is here. 
9. It was Rob Thompson (not Geoff) I was referring to and here is a talk of his on First World War logistics. 
10. Finlay Dunachie’s How Britain got Lucky.
11. The famous fort designer was Vauban.

 

Brian and I chat about communications technology

Disclaimer time. If you're looking for an explanation of the ins and outs of TCP/IP or packet switching this is not the podcast for you. This is about how Brian has used printers, photocopiers and the internet down the years to get the libertarian message across. The key thing - for Brian, at least - has been how to keep the costs down.

Along the way, we talk about LA Pamphlets, Brian and the libertarian big cheeses, universities in the late 1960s, the Royal Festival Hall's dreadful acoustics, how to sell tickets to student plays, the difference between the Libertarian Alliance and other free market think tanks and Crossrail. We even manage to find time right at the end to talk about Deidre McCloskey.

Brian quotes

"I've learnt from experience that when people say things in public they generally mean them."

"I was just observing the absurd antics of the Lenins with hair who were infesting this university in this completely delusional state of mind."

"The Royal Festival Hall was built at a sort of 2000-year low in acoustic competence."

“…look at Boris Johnson. You get the impression that his latest wife occupies about half of his head.”

“Most men are very frightened about boring people about what they do and tend to be very evasive about it.”

Notes

1. Simon Rattle's concert hall.
2. The Epic of Gilgamesh would indeed appear to be the oldest surviving story.
3. “Rob” is Rob Fisher who runs the Brian Micklethwait Archive.

Brian and I talk about Northern Ireland

Or “Ulster” as I would have it. Back in the day I was an Ulster unionist - still am for what it is worth - but I was a bit keener with my unionism in those days.

As such, Brian picks my brains on why there was ever a conflict, why it ended and what we can learn from it.

In doing so we talk about my personal experiences of the Republic of Ireland, the role of religion [spoiler alert: there isn't one], when ethnic disputes arise and when they don't, how the Swiss manage things, what we may be in for in England and the importance of the Cold War.

Brian Quotes

"It’s always felt to me like an inevitable future that Ireland would eventually be a single nation."

"Even lies that get around can tell you something."

"There was one particular quality of the Irish scrounging classes that I especially detested and that was when they would say, 'Cheer up' to you, and my answer was always, 'Fuck off!'"

“I do think language is central to this.”

“But the fact that the Irish don’t have any designs on governing Manchester or London is all part of why people like me just don’t really bother with it.”

Notes

1. The academic survey I refer to is Richard Rose's Governing without Consensus.
2. Irish began to be displaced by English in the 18th century. The number of people speaking Irish on a daily basis is in the region of 73,000. And, yes there was an Irish language qualification for the civil service.
3. It would appear that Serbo-Croat is one language  while Slovene is distinct.
4. Franco certainly tried to make everyone speak Spanish (Castillian).
5. The United Kingdom has a population of 67m and 84.3% of them live in England.
6. I can't find any evidence that there was a huge underestimate of the number of EU citizens who had applied to stay in the UK but I can find a huge discrepancy in the number of applications that the Daily Mail says were made and   the number that Wikipedia says were made.
7. The Darien Scheme.
8. How were Irishmen who fought for Britain in the Second World War treated on their return? According to the headline of this article, badly but there's not a lot of evidence given to back it up.
9. Eamon de Valera expressed condolences on Hitler's death.
10. The Ed Hussein video that Brian talks about may be this one.
11. Medina in Birmingham, Najaf in Brent.
12. Hamilton & Montgomery were indeed the organisers of the largest plantation.
13. According to this list there do not appear to have been any rebellions by the natives in Britain after Boudica.

 

Brian and I don’t talk about the LA Split

This perhaps requires some explanation. Originally, the idea was to talk about the Libertarian Alliance split which we do briefly talk about in the podcast. However, it rapidly became apparent that this was not going to be the main thrust of what we were going to talk about; rather we were going to talk about what the “other” side did, meaning what they achieved, which was quite a lot as it happens.

In doing so, we cover Orwell, Mises, Marx, atheism and why people are not as closed minded as we often think.

We also meander but you, the regular listener, wouldn’t expect anything else. Such meanderings include: Chris Tame’s Randianism; Murray Rothbard; the economic calculation debate; the Anti-Soviet Society and woke politics. 

Brian quotes

“I would far rather be understood and disagreed with than agreed with because misunderstood.”

“Your expectations of the future feed into what you think is going to happen now.”

“In other words [the socialists] kept the enterprise going and changed the excuses for it.“

“There is a point when lies go up to another level.”

“The whole point of wokery is that it is bollocks.”

“A lot of arm-twisting goes on in the socialist world.”

Notes

1. America’s Great Depression. 
2. From Marx to Mises. 
3. Mises's Socialism. 
4. Was David Ramsay Steele a lecturer? No. 
5. Atheism explained. 
6. Steele's Orwell book. 
7. Did Margaret Thatcher say, “One day they will be free.”? That’s how I remember it. The Thatcher Foundation seem to think that’s what she said although it is absent from the quoted BBC transcript. 
8. The Soviet Coup. 
9. Kondratiev was indeed a socialist. So socialist in fact that Stalin had him executed in the Great Purge.
10. Politics & The English Language 
11. It is of course the “active voice”.
12. That article for Samizdata Stephen Davies on Brexit and political realignment.
13. Myth of the Closed Mind. 
14. Khrushchev made his “We will bury you.” remark in 1956. 

Brian and I talk about sport

We start off by talking about Euro 2020 and ask why Gareth Southgate has been so successful. We move on to black sporting prowess, what happens when sport gets cancelled and then war and nuclear weapons. We end by considering refereeing and the psychology of fighter pilots.

Brian Quote

“You don’t need a meeting; it happened of it’s own accord.”

Notes

1. The maximum wage was in place from 1901 to 1961.
2. Wellington's army at Waterloo was about 70,000 strong.  which means it was slightly more than British casualties on the first day of the Somme.
3. Keith Miller was an Australian cricketer.
4. Jack Charlton did indeed players to go out there and enjoy themselves. 

Brian and I talk about the Origins of the First World War

In doing so we talk about British justifications for war, Russia and Japan, linear reasoning, nationalism, the European Union and Ireland.

Having listened to this a few times I realise I should have given Brian a lot more push back on the theory about Russia arming against Japan and this alarmed Germany. To the best of my knowledge, all Russian military expansion in the period immediately preceding the war was aimed at Germany. The French would certainly not have been lending them so much money (see Notes) if the expansion was aimed at Japan. 

Also while listening to this it dawned on me that while I am talking about Teddy Roosevelt (1:05:00 or thereabouts), Brian is talking about Franklin Roosevelt. Whoops!
 

Brian Quotes

“Causation is not a linear process.”

“The biggest lie is that the First World War started because no one knew how to stop it.”

“…often what matters is not the actual state of things but the direction in which things are moving.”

“I committed my perennial sin of talking too much.”

 
Notes

1. Our original First World War podcast, or at least the one that Brian was talking about.
2. William leQueux wrote The Invasion of 1910. 
3. Asquith's speeches (amongst others) can be found here.
4. Did the Russians know how dangerous mobilisation was? Well, they certainly did when the Germans issued them with an ultimatum.
5. Did Russia have a treaty with Serbia? Apparently not.
6. Does Norman Stone claim that Russian railways were more East-West than North-South? I tried to find a reference but without success.
7. How much was France spending? A lot it would appear.
8. The Second Morocco crisis was in 1911.
9. Was it the Tsar who backed out of Björkö? Yes. 
10. Did the socialists have a majority in the Reichstag? No, but they had become the largest party. 
11. TIK the YouTuber. 

 

Brian and I talk about Steve Stewart-Williams and evolution

This conversation was inspired by the works of Steve Stewart-Williams principally his book The Ape that Understood the Universe and his Twitter feed. We talk about the nature versus nurture debate, design, the importance of copying, the woke fraternity, Breton fishing boats, the caveman inside us, Richard Dawkins, the importance (or otherwise) of music (and, by extension other forms of culture) before moving on to the horrors of modern architecture and the horrors of Nissen huts in the Winter of 1963.

Brian Quotes

“It could well be that in Malaysia they are more scornful of this sort of thing than we are in the Anglo-Saxon world.”

“Obesity is not exactly a problem they had on the ancient plains of Africa or wherever it is we did our evolving.”

“…humans are, even now, evolving into the culture that humans have created.”

“One of the problems you have if you work from first principles is you have to re-think absolutely everything and you fail to re-think absolutely everything successfully.”

“That was a big pretence by the architectural profession that they had nothing to do with it, ‘Oh, that was the planners.’ Rubbish! They were absolutely up to their necks in this.”

“There’s a sort of labour theory of value that applies to decoration isn’t there? And if it’s just thrashed out by a machine it kind of loses its meaning.”

Notes

1. The Ape that Understood the Universe.
2. Brian has posted several times on this subject. Here are a few:
   1. What women look for in men.
   2. Breton fishing boats.
   3. The evolution of language.
   4. Nurture Only is wrong.
3. Stewart-Williams appears to be an associate professor at the University of Nottingham, Malaysia Campus.
4. It appears that our youthful tank crews were singing something called the Panzerlied which is a new one on me.
5. Kenneth Clark did indeed hold concerts at a then painting-less National Gallery.
6. Did Britain and Germany have the same national anthem in the First World War? Pretty much.
7. For Ayn Rand’s views on architecture see the movie The Fountainhead (or even read the book if you’ve got the patience.)
8. The Great Eastern. Did it have to be that size? To sail to Australia without stopping to re-fuel, yes.
9.  Quinlan Terry.
10.  I was quite wrong, Design as Outcome is not on the Brian Micklethwait Archive just yet. But it is here.
11. Brutalist architecture or wartime Nazi bunker? I'll leave you to decide:

Brian and I talk about Enoch Powell

Enoch Powell was a prominent politician in the 1960s and 1970s. He is best known for his views on immigation although he was also friendly towards libertarian ideas especially on economics. While a large part of our chat is inevitably taken up with immigration we also discuss Margaret Thatcher, Steve Baker and the end of Empire.

Brian quotes

"He regards office as a trivial thing by comparison [with ideas]."

"He [Powell] probably would have submitted it to a bigger publisher, the bigger publisher would have said 'Do you think you could tone this down?' and the answer was 'No!'"

Notes

1. Simon Heffer’s biography 
2. Powell’s history of the House of Lords 
3. Powell and King’s Langley. I can’t find any subsequent reference to his theory so I have no idea whether it has become accepted or not.
4. Powell resigned from the Macmillan government in January 1958.
5. The substance of the House of Lords reform that both Conservative and Labour backbenchers could object to was the amount of front bench patronage involved.
6. He became professor at the University of Sydney in 1937.
7. His Wikipedia entry lists well over 30 writings. Some are books, some papers and some collections of speeches. 
8. Powell was elected as an Ulster Unionist in the October 1974 election.
9. East of Suez.
10. There is some evidence to suggest that Blair used immigration to rig elections.
11. Our diversity podcast.
12. After the Falklands War, Powell had this to say in the House of Commons, “Is the right hon Lady aware, that the report has now been received from the public analyst on a certain substance recently subject to analysis and that I have obtained a copy of the report? It shows that the substance under test consisted of ferrous matter of the highest quality, that is of exceptional tensile strength, is highly resistant to wear and tear and to stress, and may be used with advantage for all national purposes?” The words were framed and hung in her office.
13. The story about Powell and his Indian colleague appears on p.95 of Heffer.

Brian and Patrick talk about the divisions within libertarianism

This conversation came about from the observation made by both of us that on the big issues of the day whether they be Brexit, Trump or lockdowns, libertarians find themselves on either side of the divide - often vociferously so. Can libertarians be effective when they are so divided?

Sadly, we never really manage to answer this question. We do, however, manage to spend time talking about the importance of prosperity, the differences between active socialists and active libertarians, women orchestra conductors and the growth of the Anglosphere.

Right at the end we mention silences. There were plenty during the recording as the two of us (mainly me) gathered our thoughts. These have now been removed.

Brian quotes

“Libertarianism is a statement about how the world is.”

“If you by going on holiday and spread the plague you might as well be waving a machine gun in the air and firing it.”

“Optimism is a good technique”

Notes

1. Kristian Niemitz 
2. Anton Howes 
3. One of Brian’s postings on Steve Stewart-Williams 
4. What J K Rowling has to say 
5. Perry de Havilland gets banned
6. Brian on Chris Tame 
7. I have been unable to find the speech by Brezhnev.
8. J P Floru 
9. Mancur Olsen

 

Brian and I talk about what they don't tell you about death

At least that was the intention. Unfortunately, (or should that be "fortunately"?) we tended to get side-tracked - perhaps because it is a depressing subject, perhaps for other reasons. The main side track was the economics of the Royal Marsden Hospital which would appear to be quite good.

Notes

1. Brian on NHS diagnosis v NHS treatment 
2. The Machine 
3. The Brian Micklethwait Archive
4. Brian on charities
5. Overheating Samsungs
6. LG does indeed stand for Lucky-Goldstar
7. The Five Stages of Grief (that aren't)
8. The Mask
9. Monorails
10. Francis Fukuyama and the end of history
11. Does Communist China hold sham elections? Yes it does.
12. Google cars
13. Brian on robot trucks

Brian and Patrick chat about the Industrial Revolution

Luckily the introduction is on the recording so I don’t have to introduce the subject here (well, that’s how it seems to me.) However, there are notes to be done so here goes:

1. Findlay Dunachie
2. Brian's blog posting on the books he's been reading. 
3. Anton Howes
4. The Kink 
5. Lilburne was imprisoned but he was not executed.
6. I haven’t been able to find a date for when the word “inventor” came into the language.
7. This chart seems to indicate that literacy rates in Britain were similar to those in Germany and Sweden in 1750. Of course, these are estimates. After all, who was counting?
8. Luther had 95 theses.
9. I think Brian is referring to the German Peasants’ War of the 1520s.
10. “There are doubts as to the extent of George Stephenson's literacy. Most of his letters were written by secretaries or his son Robert, but signed by George Stephenson himself. “
11. On the subject of the destruction of the Song’s ocean-going ships I can find precious little - nay, disturbingly little - evidence for this especially on Wikipedia. There were “Treasure voyages” but they were in the Ming period. Some say the ships were destroyed but Wikipedia is silent.
12. The Duke of Northumberland’s River would appear to have been built well before the 1700. Well before the English Civil War even. 
13. The Bridgewater Canal was indeed commissioned by an aristocrat (a duke as it happens) and opened in 1761; bang, slap in the middle of the period we are talking about. 
14. Sudha Shenoy 
15. Emmanuel Todd 

Blast from the Past! Brian and I talk about Emmanuel Todd

If you know Brian Micklethwait you will know that he is a big fan of French anthropologist/sociologist Emmanuel Todd and has been for a long time. The name frequently crops up in our recorded conversations. What Todd believes, in essence, is that family structure has a big impact on politics. Some 13 years ago, Brian and I sat down to discuss his ideas. One of Brian’s greatest hopes is that he can find a critique of Todd’s ideas. Did he ever find one? He doesn’t seem to have done so. 

Blast from the Past! Antoine Clarke and I talk about the occupation of the Ruhr

The latest podcast with Brian Micklethwait rather put me in mind of another podcast I recorded some 9 years ago with Antoine Clarke. This was ostensibly about the occupation of the Ruhr in 1923 but it quickly became about the whole history of Franco-German animosity. And none the worse it was for that!

Anyway, after a bit of rootling around for it I eventually found it. And then I found it again here. Well worth a listen I’d say.

I may republish some more of these in due course.

Brian and I talk about the French military

For a long time in the English-speaking world the French military has been regarded as a bit of a joke. Words and phrases like “defeatism”, “Maginot LIne”, “red trousers” and “cult of the offensive” get bandied about. The more I study the subject - and I by no means claim to be an expert - the less I believe this. It seems to me that in the Second World War the French army was quite good, just unlucky. In the First it was pretty bad but not for the reasons we think. 

In the course of our conversation we cover Napoleon and, of course, Hitler, the German preparations for war, the fall of empire, American independence, Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy, American anti-Americanism, the break-up of successful coalitions, French art and the move from war to watercolours, Emmanuel Todd, counter-factual history. 

Notes

1. In the victorious 100 days offensive the British took 48% of the prisoners and 42% of the guns. The French took 36% of the prisoners and 28% of the guns. So, the French weren’t doing nothing.
2. Simon House Lost Opportunity
3. In the Middle Ages 1 in 4 Europeans was a Frenchman. This proportion has been declining ever since especially since the beginning of the Industrial Revolution.
4. Dreyfus Affair 
5. Boulanger 
6. Findlay Dounachie's LA pamphlet 
7. Foch was the commander of all the Allied armies in 1918 
8. On that comment about the French PM asking Haig about the merits of the Nivelle Offensive I have got confused. He was asked by the French War Minister about the merits of Nivelle before the offensive began (24/3/17). He was asked by the French Prime Minister about the merits of other French generals after the offensive began (26/4/17).
9. Do the French remember the Battle of the Ardennes? Yes, but not particularly well. There is a Battle of the Ardennes page on French Wikipedia but it took a while for me to find. 
10. According to David Fraser’s biography of Alan Brooke (p137), the review of French troops took place in the presence of General Corap who Brooke found complacent. Unfortunately, this was written after the Fall of France. 
11. For more on Germany’s High Command and their plot to oust Hitler in 1938
12. This would appear to be the battle between Caesar and Pompey that Brian was referring to.
13. Dien Bien Phu was a bit bigger than I thought but nothing like the scale of the First World War.
14. “Only” 80,000 British soldiers surrendered at Singapore 
15. There may have been as many as 40,000 French civilian dead in the Normandy Campaign.
16. Here is de Gaulle after Paris was liberated. My French may be rusty but I am pretty sure there is no mention of either Britain or America. 
17. This is the book by Ross King that Brian mentions 
18. David’s portrait of Napoleon 
19. The French word for “sympathy” is “sympathie”.
20. I can’t find any evidence that Haig was sceptical about the Nivelle Offensive