My heated argument about Italy’s birthrate |
Dante’s Beach, Ravenna
We were having dinner in the Osteria del Tempo Perso (The Hostelry of Lost Time). It is in the old city which in the 5th century was the last capital of the western Roman empire as, besieged by various types of barbarian, the final fall drew ever nearer.
I was drinking again.
Keir Starmer is prosecuting a relentless campaign against reality
Did Keir Starmer watch the same Olly Robbins as me?
The changing economics of war
The rules are simple: I can drink when abroad, defined as anywhere outside the province of Ravenna, which I rarely leave; or else when anyone foreign – i.e. non-Italian – comes to visit, which is even rarer.
My younger brother Simon, the KC, had come for a long weekend with his second wife Cyrena, two of his four children from his first marriage, Sam (33) and Rufus (28), and his stepdaughter, Jemima (22). Simon, unlike me, gave up alcohol completely years ago and was as sober as a judge, perhaps because he is a judge. He is about to start a three-week stint at the Old Bailey.
We were contemplating the demographic crisis in the West and demob happy I was really getting into the swing of things.
We lead a hand-to-mouth existence on the outer edges of sanity and legality near a nudist beach
We lead a hand-to-mouth existence on the outer edges of sanity and legality near a nudist........