Archive - This Green and Surprisingly Pleasant Land by Stephen Vines

Visiting the most bizarre nation on earth

The opening of a new North Korean tourist zone prompts memories of posing as a tourist while attempting to report from there

6 hrs ago •

How to say nothing in very few words

Britain’s long awaited announcement on a reset of relations with China relations turns out to be studiously underwhelming

Jul 1 •

June 2025

Britannia ascendant – rejoice!

The crisis in the Middle East shows how jolly clever and jolly important we can be.

Jun 24 •

Anything else I can help you with Mr Xi?

As Britain prepares to publish its new plan for relations with China the big question appears to be whether a full or half kowtow will work best

Jun 17 •

They can fill the jails, create an atmosphere of fear and re-write history and but they cannot extinguish hope.

Remembering the 1989 Tiananmen Square massacre

Jun 10 •

Uncomfortable truths about policing, race and immigrants

Why the police were right not to turn the Liverpool tragedy into a disaster

Jun 3

May 2025

Netanyahu is running out of road

And that makes him even more desperate and dangerous

May 27 •

Trying to outbid the extreme right is a mug’s game and it’s plain wrong

Surely Keir Starmer knows this or does he?

May 20

Is China Winning?

Or to put it another way, does China rise as America falls?

May 13 •

How the mighty have fallen

The fate of British ex-Prime Ministers

May 6 •

April 2025

The Great Woke War heats up

And has not been tempered by a court ruling on Trans rights

Apr 29 •

They take them for fools

Which is why China enjoys manipulating British governments

Apr 22 •

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