28 Saturday Jun 2025
Posted in anthropology, Polemic, political science, Politics
Martyn Richard Jones
President Donald Trump’s recent comments about NATO do not indicate a call for collective security reform. Instead, they reveal an intensely transactional view of international partnerships. Urging alliance members to assign as much as 5% of their GDP, an unprecedented figure, to purchasing U.S.-made weaponry and military equipment, Trump has once again reframed global security as a business deal.
Continue reading27 Friday Jun 2025
Posted in Polemic, political science, Politics
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Picture the scene. It’s Prime Minister’s Questions, the great gladiatorial stage of British democracy, less Gladiator and more Blazing Saddles at a town planning meeting in Swindon. Keir Starmer, sensible Labour’s hero, their knight in gleaming, sensible shoes, rises from the opposition bench. That look on his face, you know the one, shows a man who’s just alphabetised his law books and is ready to go. Across the gallery, Rishi Sunak sits there, gleaming, like a waxwork who’s been told he has to look “empathetic” by 5 p.m. or he’ll be back in the dock. Starmer adjusts his glasses and launches into one of his trademark cross-examinations. It’s like watching a lawyer interrogate a spreadsheet. “Point one, Mr Speaker!” He declares, and you can hear the ghost of Mel Brooks shouting, “What’s wrong with this guy? Where’s the dynamism?” He cites a statistic: a 17.3% increase in NHS waiting times, in case you’re wondering, and it isn’t. Then another: a £3.2 billion shortfall in council budgets. It’s meticulous, it’s legal, it’s as if he’s building a case to prosecute a toaster for breach of warranty. By the time he gets to his witty quip, “The failure of this government isn’t just a policy, it’s a personality trait!”, he drops like a Gregg’s custard tart allowed to fall by a woman worried about her cleaning bills.
Continue reading09 Wednesday Apr 2025
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books, grand-strategy, history, honour, News, Philosophy, pnac, Politics
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This book is dedicated to the great, compassionate, and visionary individuals. They have profoundly shaped my political journey. They have also influenced how I understand the world. Their courage, integrity, and unwavering commitment to justice have inspired me and countless others. Their actions have made an indelible impact on the political landscape of recent times.
Continue reading12 Friday Jul 2019
Posted in anthropology, bad strategy, Economics, Philosophy, political science, Politics, Strategy
Martyn Richard Jones
Brussels, 12th July 2019
Britain’s Labour Party has been besieged by a continuous barrage of accusations alleging that the party is anti-Semitic; that it is institutionally racist and that its leader is somehow turning a blind eye to it.
This is a very serious and weighty allegation, with potentially devastating implications.
So, what does this deluge of accusations of anti-Semitism in the Labour Party tell us about racism in Britain and in British politics?
Continue reading24 Monday Jun 2019
Martyn Richard Jones
Brussels 24th June 2019
In 2016 the UK held what was called the United Kingdom European Union membership referendum the objective of which was to gauge public sentiment about the UK leaving or remaining in the EU.
It was a non-binding consultation, which means that regardless of outcome, it can be legitimately ignored by MPs.
The generally accepted nonsense about the referendum being legally or constitutionally binding was just that, nonsense.
Continue reading22 Saturday Jun 2019
Posted in Brexit, Consultation, Democracy, Duties, EU, Europe, European Union, Freedoms, Obligations, Parliament, Politics, Referendum, RIghts, UK
Martyn Richard Jones
Brussels Saturday 22nd June 2019
In 2016 the UK held what was offically known as the United Kingdom European Union membership referendum, a non-binding consultation with the people of the UK on the question of the UK leaving or remaining in the EU.
51.9% of those who voted supported the UK’s exit from the European Union.
Continue reading27 Monday May 2019
Posted in anthropology, Brexit, Economics, Europe, European Union, leadership, Philosophy, Politics, UK
Martyn Martyn Richard Jones
Bruxelles 27th May 2019
As I commented to Keir Starmer today “Labour are making a fundamental mistake and it ain’t working, Keir”.
Labour’s approach to Brexit is completely the wrong strategy and it’s doing nobody (apart from Nigel Farage) any favours. No Brexit will benefit the immense majority of the country, we know that, and we know that the EU is not going to cut a better deal for anyone, regardless of their political flavour, because that’s just the way it is.
Like it or loath it, but, Theresa May probably struck the best Brexit deal that the UK can aspire to, and it was roundly rejected, for various reasons, by Westminster. No, the best Brexit deal is no Brexit at all.
20 Monday May 2019
Posted in Economics, Good Strategy, Philosophy, Politics, Strategy
20 Monday May 2019
Martyn Richard Jones
Bruxelles 20th May 2019
I have just read Simon Jenkin’s article, published in The Guardian, on the current barney between the USA and China – “Google’s Huawei ban is good news: tech giants shouldn’t always get their way“.
This is one of those rare occasions when I don’t agree entirely with what Simon has to say, but, the piece still carries a lot of good sense and finely tuned criticism.
For me, this quarrel isn’t fundamentally about security or reining in big-tech. This is essentially about trade wars, base protection, maintaining power and imposing influence. In short, it’s about hubris, intimidation and violence on the global political stage.
But, at the bottom of all of this is the Trump administration’s Homeric ignorance and epic ability to simply fanny-around.
19 Sunday May 2019
Posted in Inform, educate and entertain., IT Circus, IT fraud, IT strategy, IT World, listening, Philosophy, Polemic, Politics
Aranjuez, Spain
Martyn Richard Jones
Bruxelles 19th May 2019
Listen well
I am a big fan of listening well and in continually improving listening skills. Yes, there are times when we can over-listen but this is also linked with skills of diplomacy and politics. How we listen should inform us a lot about what we and others really are.
So, whilst I am a big advocate of listening well I see that the world of business, and especially the sub-world of IT, is plagued with vain, impulsive and badly informed vote-takers who stubbornly resist the need to listen well and who will attempt to deftly fill the whole of the available time bashing their gums in communicating what are to all intents and purposes vacuous inanities and long litanies of meaningless clichés, full of terms that they either abuse or misunderstand; or even a bit of both.
And, as anyone who has worked with IT will know, I am not making this up. We used to call this charlatanry now we simply call it consulting. It still isn’t turning a pig’s ear into a silk purse, no matter how much people insist. But, there it is, in all its magnificent mediocrity.
Some people tell me it’s because IT attracts people with autism and Asperger’s syndrome; whatever that is.
I tend to put this refusal to listen down to other things; my money is firmly on arrogance and ignorance.
But, they just don’t get it, do they? Continue reading
GOOD STRATEGY 