Delivery, Delivery, Delivery

A few days ago, Professor Tom Devine described George Galloway’s statements about Scottish independence as ‘talking rhetoric’. But in last night’s debate on independence between Alistair Darling (for Better Together) and the Scottish First Minister Alex Salmond, it wasn’t just talk but the way they talked that really won (or lost) the day. From the …

Educating the Youth: Rome and today

In the UK today, we struggle with education, both the idea and the reality. It is highly political, tied up with social mobility (or lack thereof), and more often maligned than praised. It is surprising to many of us that the British education system is so successfully marketed abroad: what is there, you might think, …

Reading the Praetorian Guardian

Yesterday I went to see a show about the Roman Empire at the Edinburgh Fringe that was like the undergraduate lecture of my dreams... As Ed O’Meara rightly guessed, the packed audience in the slightly damp back room of Bannerman’s bar wasn’t there because of his big-name reputation as a comedian. Instead, we were there because …