Robert Buckland Weblog

The prime of my life, the start of the Middle Ages – call it what you will, but I have reached a milestone this week.  I am marking the occasion with family and friends; George and Millie are six this week so a joint effort is required.   The kind weather this month has enabled me [...]

News has reached me that the body of Sir Mark Sykes has been exhumed for the purposes of investigating the precise nature of the virus responsible for the Spanish Flu outbreak of 1918/1919 that carried him and millions of others off.  (Afficionados of “Upstairs Downstairs” will recall that it took dear Hazel Bellamy, who was [...]

The internal politics of the Labour Party (or of any Party, for that matter) have never been an edifying spectacle, but the events in New York last night and the reaction of world stockmarkets to yet another hammer blow to the credit system have served to place the plight of former assistant whips and vice-chairmen [...]

Prison Officers are a much-maligned group of people.  The image most of us have of them probably comes from TV shows such as the wonderful “Porridge”.  The reality is, of course, somewhat different.  There are few inmates like Norman Stanley Fletcher and fewer prison officers like Mr. MacKay in our prisons today.  The task of [...]

Our journey up to Cumbria took several days; visits to Cadbury World in Bournville and Thomas The Tank Engine Land at Tamworth were followed by a stop in Liverpool and a chance to see an excellent exhibition at the Tate Liverpool: “Gustav Klimt, Painting, Design and Modern Life in Vienna 1900″ before it closed at [...]

At least I wasn’t facing the prospect of having a Guardian reporter embedded with us during our holiday, but Westmorland in August was always a risk.  To say the least, it was rather disappointing to experience Novemberesque fog at Tarn Hows (a National Trust site promising memorable views)  in the middle of our stay.  It [...]