18th of March 2025 My Lords, last Thursday, the noble Lord, Lord Howell, asked the House to take note of the UK’s international position. My purpose today is narrower but more urgent; to ask the Government what their Ukraine policy now is. It is urgent because the Trump Administration have torn up the familiar script. I wish the Government had offered a full-length debate to consider the consequences of this. I remind your Lordships of the script. The King’s Speech of 17 July...
Read More »House of Lords Speech – Ukraine: “A wake up call” (International Relations and Defence Committee Report)
6th of March 2025 My Lords, I will not speak directly to the proposals of the report to improve our military capabilities but will consider the framework in which they are set. The report’s underlying assumption is that Russia’s invasion of Ukraine has made Europe a much more dangerous place, against which we have to rearm ourselves if we are not to suffer the fate of Ukraine somewhere down the line. The report was published before Trump’s victory in the US election and therefore...
Read More »Speech in the House of Lords – Conduct Committee
5th of March 2025 My Lords, like other noble Lords, I commend the efforts of the noble Baroness and her committee to shorten and simplify the code and guide. That they have not altogether freed themselves from the bureaucracy involved in all this is more a sign of the times than of any lack of effort on their part. I welcome the obligation to register non-financial interests and reduce registrable interests from 10 to seven, but I still struggle to understand the purpose of the...
Read More »The American Conservative – Why Is the UK So Invested in the Russia–Ukraine War?
1st of January 2025 Donald Trump’s victory in the U.S. presidential election of November 2024 has shredded the liberal script about the Ukraine war. That script was to offer unconditional moral and material support for a Ukrainian victory, defined minimally as recovery of the invaded territories of Crimea and Donbass. In Britain, it was considered almost treasonable to suggest otherwise. Even before Trump’s election, the script had subtly changed into “doing what it takes” to put...
Read More »The American Conservative: Skidelsky on Russia, Ukraine and the Future of European Security
15th of February 2025 Europe is coming to grips with new global realities. James Carden of The American Conservative and David Speedie of the Carnegie Council’s Global Engagement Program sat down with Baron Robert Sidelsky to discuss his newfound optimism regarding a settlement between Russia and Ukraine and Europe’s continued dependence on American security guarantees. Baron Skidelsky has been a member of Britain’s House of Lords since 1991. He is professor emeritus of political...
Read More »Britain’s insistence on total Ukrainian victory was misguided – it’s time for a realistic compromise
The Guardian – 25th of February 2025 “By refusing to back negotiations for the past three years, the UK has become irrelevant to the search for peace – we must change course” On the third anniversary of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, British policy towards the war is in a mess. The continuing official British position, echoed by all the main media, has been “no peace without a Ukraine victory” – meaning, centrally, the expulsion of Russia from all territories seized since 2014....
Read More »Ukrayna: Savaş mı barış mı? – Article in Karar – 13/01/2025
Donald Trump’ın Kasım 2024’teki ABD başkanlık seçimlerindeki zaferi, Ukrayna savaşını sona erdirmeye yönelik liberal senaryoyu yırtıp attı. Bu senaryo, Ukrayna’ya işgal altındaki Kırım ve Donbass topraklarını geri almak olarak belirtilen zafere ulaşana kadar koşulsuz maddi ve manevi destek sunmaktı. Trump’ın seçilmesinden önce bile senaryo, Ukrayna’ya Rusya ile barış görüşmelerinde mümkün olan en iyi pazarlık pozisyonunu vermek için “ne gerekiyorsa yapmak” şeklinde değişmişti. Bu...
Read More »Trump som diplomat og kampen om den retfærdige fred – Flemming Rose Article
14th of December 2024 Til denne uges Fri Tænkning har jeg talt med den britiske økonom og historiker Robert Skidelsky, der siden 1991 har siddet i det britiske parlaments overhus. I de første ti år som konservativ, men siden da har Skidelsky ikke repræsenteret et politisk parti. Han har tidligere været medlem af både Labour og Socialdemokratiet, som han var med til at stifte og forlod, da det i 1988 blev slået sammen med Det Liberale Parti under et nyt navn, Liberaldemokraterne. ...
Read More »Presentation for the Miami Book Fair – Mindless
23 November 2024 This book tells three stories about the impact of machines on the human condition: on the way we work, on our freedom, and on our physical survival. Each story contains within it a vision of heaven and hell: the promise of relief from work, freedom to think our own thoughts, and almost indefinite improvement of health and extension of life confronts their opposites in the spectre of human uselessness, of Orwelliam thought control, and of man made disaster....
Read More »A Tale of Frankenstein – Lecture at Bard College
19 November 2024 Introduction As we all know Frankenstein was the scientist in Mary Shelley’s 1818 novel of that name, who invented a human machine, which he intended to be a benefactor, but which turned out to be a monster. The question I want to address this evening is: can we avoid our technology destroying us? This is the most important thread running through my book, Mindless, just published in the United States. It discusses the impact of machines on jobs, on...
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