Author: geoff

Once again I’m in California, this time for a conference of Sun’s software engineering leadership. Despite the constant phone and video conferences, there’s no substitute for getting a bunch of peers together in one place for long enough to meet new people, eavesdrop on interesting conversations, and reinforce long-time relationships. While the trend may be towards highly distributed teams and working from home, management ignores the importance of face-to-face contact and social interactions at their peril….
This evening I went to see Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind with Jim Carrey and Kate Winslet. I was a bit nervous because of Stephanie Zacharek’s bittersweet review in Salon.com, but I needn’t have worried: I absolutely loved it. This review by Mike McGranaghan captures it perfectly. Highly recommended.
I’ve also been reading Richard Clarke’s Against All Enemies. (There are far too many essential political books coming out these days. Perhaps it’s all a conspiracy by the publishers!) Clarke and his book have occasioned much debate this week, including flaming to the ombudsman of the New York Times by many people (including your’s truly). As I’ve read it, I’ve been struck by four things. First, it’s the first book I’ve read that pulls together the terrorist-related events of the last 15 years into a coherent narrative. Second, an awful lot of stuff went on during the Clinton presidency that was almost ignored because of the scandal-mongering of The Vast Right-wing Conspiracy. Third, Clarke comes across as a professional who is frequently annoyed, frustrated, and dismissive of the political amateurs that he had to put up with. And finally, while I’m sure that the book is occasionally self-serving, I’m equally convinced that it is a fundamentally honest account. Also recommended.

While I was in California over the last weekend, I picked up Robin Cook’s Point of Departure, and read it in a couple of sittings. Rather than providing a detailed review, let me refer you to this review in the Guardian by Malcolm Rifkind, the last Conservative foreign secretary (and therefore a political adversary of Robin Cook).
Despite the obvious Iraq angle, this book is about more than just the rush to war. There are really three aspects to it:

• It provides an invaluable account of the debate within the British government during the run-up to the invasion of Iraq.
• It gives a detailed view of how “the mother of all Parliaments” actually operates at the beginning of the 21st century, from the point of view of someone who is both a committed Parliamentarian and a passionate voice for modernisation.
• In a lengthy coda, it sets out a strong case for the continuing relevance of a Social Democrat alternative to the prevailing market-centric neo-Liberal orthodoxy.

Salon magazine has just put up an interesting piece by Andrew O’Hehir entitled Lost in the Desert. It’s about Tony Blair and his disastrous decision to support Bush’s war, as portrayed in two new books: “Point of Departure” by Robin Cook, who resigned from Blair’s cabinet over the war, and Philip Stephens’ “Tony Blair: The Making of a World Leader”. The article is fascinating, and Cook’s book looks like essential reading – I’m gong to order a copy from Amazon UK tonight.