177. Olaf Scholz: Putin, Power, and Far-Right Populism
23 February 2026
Nothing to say and so little time not to say it
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Post
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17 September 2010
Not had time to watch any news or read any papers (except over shoulders of fellow tube travellers) so beyond knowing that the Pope is in town after a successful Scottish leg of his UK tour, that Boris looked smarter than usual when he met him last night, that some men have been arrested in connection with the visit, and that Somerset narrowly failed to win the county championship, I am not terribly up to speed and therefore unable to give my usual searing analysis of current affairs.
I was tied up most of the morning in a planning meeting on publication of the next volume of my diaries, Power and the People, which comes out on January 20 next year. Seems a long way away I know, but these things take time. Anyway it went on quite a long time, then Fiona and I had lunch with the headteacher and deputies of our brilliant local primary school, and now I'm catching up on stuff I failed to do yesterday because I was speaking at a mental health conference in Lincoln, before packing for the Great North Run, to which I will be heading after seeing Burnley at Crystal Palace tomorrow. (Btw good quiz question - which football team's name starts with five consonants?)
So busy busy busy, blah blah blah, and no time to do what might be termed a proper blog. Instead, a bit of shameless plugging down under. Prelude to Power, predecessor to Power and the People, must be out there now because I have been getting a few bids for interviews. Have done a pre-record for this weekend's Sunday Profile on ABC with Monica Attard and also been the subject of an interview of this rather impressive books blog, towards which I was pushed by a persistent Aussie twitter follower. Lots in there to chew on I hope.
Anyway I have nothing more to say, and no more time in which to say it. Goodbye. Have a lovely weekend.
Oh just one final thing ... I walked past Selfridges on the way to lunch, and noted there are doormen all wearing identical yellow ties, which match the yellow Selfridges bags everyone in the vicinity seemed to be carrying. Maybe it's just me, but it made me think Selfridges had employed a job lot of Nick Cleggs. Really not good for their image. Someone needs to grip it.
Well for a load of blah blah blah it wasn’t all that blah blah 🙂
Will look forward to your normal blog’s service to resume and in the meantime you too have a lovely weekend.
Good Luck for the Great North Run do please do yourself proud !
Your blah blah blah better than most people’s blog blog blog
You watching the Pope visit? Nice to see Tony and Gordon chatting away. Tory leaders all stumm. As for Clegg sitting there all puffed up … what a plonker
I used to really enjoy AC’s blogs and tweets, but now finding the endless book plugs and self promotion tiresome.
Please, no more talk about Boris. I have only just recovered from my friend telling me last weekend that my 18 month old baby boy is a dead ringer for him…..and the fact that he was right makes it a much heavier weight to bear. My other kids have even nicknamed him Boris. Alas, the burdens of motherhood!