Selected Articles and Features
Reflections on Commonwealth Day
The Round Table, The Commonwealth Journal of International Affairs, 17 March 2022
Her Majesty the Queen’s presence at the traditional Commonwealth Service in Westminster Abbey was much missed, especially given that the service was to mark the beginning of her 70th Platinum Jubilee celebrations. So last minute was her absence that the schedule of events, as listed in the programme, still stated that, on arrival, the Queen would be received by the Dean of Westminster. Instead, as has already become increasingly frequent, the Prince of Wales fulfilled her role, accompanied by the Duchess of Cornwall, the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge and other members of the Royal Family. Seated close by was the Prime Minister, the Right Honourable Boris Johnson, MP and the Secretary-General of the Commonwealth, Baroness Patricia Scotland, QC, who, in turn, were flanked by a galaxy of diplomats and officials as well as representatives from all Churches and faiths.
Read External LinkBook review, The Good Girls, An Ordinary Killing
by Sonia Faleiro The Spectator, 20 February 2021
Read External Link‘From Oxford pals to political prisoner – my 30-year friendship with Benazir Bhutto,’
The Telegraph, 28 October 2020
Click here to read article (in pdf format)VE Day Reflections
The Round Table, The Commonwealth Journal of International Affairs, 11 May 2020.
On 8 May the United Kingdom celebrated the 75th anniversary of VE Day – Victory in Europe – in recognition of all those who had fought in the Second World War (1939-45). Having addressed the nation during the corona virus pandemic, her Majesty the Queen again broadcast a message to the people. Mindful of the continuing lockdown because of the pandemic, she recognised that ‘today it may seem hard that we cannot mark this special anniversary as we would wish. Instead we remember from our homes and from our doorsteps.’…
Read External LinkCovid-19: A view from London
The Round Table, The Commonwealth Journal of International Affairs, 1 May 2020.
A month or two ago no one of this generation had any concept of how a worldwide epidemic or ‘pandemic’ would affect our lives. Now with the rapid spread of Covid-19 from country to country, its significance has become horribly familiar, illustrated by daily statistics of those who have ‘sadly died’ and a whole list of do’s and don’ts constricting our activities.
For those of us living in the UK being in the grip of a pandemic has also spawned a range of previously unheard of activities: lockdown, social distancing, self-isolation. But it has also generated resilience, compassion, and a realisation that, despite the challenges we are individually and collectively facing, the situation could be worse….
Read External LinkJinnah Institute Opinion ‘Dear World, how is the lockdown? Kashmir’
28 April 2020
A year ago I was in the Valley of Kashmir. Although much had changed since my last visit, with new houses under construction, some roads repaired, there was still the same feeling of gloom – of people living on the edge, unable to enjoy their lives and their magnificent surroundings to the full because they never knew when the next curfew was going to be imposed, when the next crackdown would come and whose family was going to suffer premature bereavement in an ‘encounter’ with Indian security forces. Even so there was still an expectation that, if only the two powerful neighbours, India and Pakistan, between whom the state remains de facto divided, could sit down at the negotiating table, as they had intermittently tried to do in past decades, some equitable resolution of the issue could be achieved (provided of course there was some consultation with a representative selection of Jammu and Kashmir’s 12 plus million inhabitants.) But on 5th August 2019 – not long after I’d left the Valley – everything changed….
Read External LinkOnce the goal was to woo Kashmir. Now Modi is bent on taking it
The Sunday Times, 11 August 2019
Read External LinkIndia’s Elections: ‘Dismal’ voter turnout in Jammu and Kashmir
The Round Table, 17 May 2019
Read External LinkLondon Notes:
Buckingham Palace, 19 April.
London Notes
Days two and three, 17-18 April.
London Notes: First day impressions of the Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting
16 April.
Book review: Defeat is an Orphan: How Pakistan lost the Great South Asian War,
by Myra MacDonald
Book review: Travels in a Dervish Cloak by Isambard Wilkinson
The Spectator, 29 September 2017
Excerpt”A portrait of the Life and Vision of Shabana Basij-Rasikh’
Read External LinkGeography and History conspire to make peace in Kashmir a challenge
Kashmir Observer, Dec 2015