The bard pays homage to his two muses: his wife and his football club

Autocracy, Inc. The Dictators who want to run the World
Anne Applebaum, Allen Lane, £20
THE world is divided into goodies and baddies. Baddies are identified by their nation and their leader, the principal ones being Russia and China with strong supporting roles for Venezuela, Iran, Belarus, Syria, Cuba, Zimbabwe and North Korea.
They all hang together in a club called Autocracy, Inc, a mixture of shadowy bodies that practice kleptocracy (“government by theft,”) rule with an iron fist, and empower a narrow elite at the top.
Their primary interests are being evil and acquiring power and money. All the baddies hate democracy. They tell a lot of lies, bedazzling the stupid populations in their own countries and abroad.

ALEX HALL is frustrated by a book that ducks a clear definition of terrorism and fails to perceive the role of the state in sponsoring it

ALEX HALL is disgusted by the misuse of ‘emotional narratives’ to justify uninformed geo-political prejudice

