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What should the future of British foreign policy look like? For too
long successive governments have shied away from acknowledging
uncomfortable truths about the decline of Britain's military
capabilities. As we approach the middle years of the twenty-first
century a new set of urgent and daunting challenges - including
climate change, technological development and the rise of AI, and a
growing threat from China - lie ahead, making the need for us to
reconcile ourselves with our position in the world more acute. In
this persuasively argued book, Simon McDonald shows how the UK's
significant soft-power strengths can be harnessed to expand our
international influence. Such a shift will only be possible, he
says, if we first acknowledge the challenges of Brexit and the need
to reduce our unrealistic hard-power ambitions. Excellence in areas
that other countries care about will keep the UK internationally
relevant in the second half of the century in a way that nostalgia
for a lost pre-eminence will not.
When Abraham Lincoln said, ‘You can be anything you want to
be,’ Americans, and eventually everybody everywhere, lifted their
sights. Nowadays anybody can aspire to be a leader, and nearly
everybody has to lead sometimes. In Leadership, Simon McDonald
assumes that thinking about leadership before you lead helps you to
lead better. No matter the circumstances in which we might be
called to lead – be it at work, on the sports field, or in the
community – the example of top leaders in politics and public
service (both their successes and shortcomings) can help you figure
out your own approach. As the head of HM Diplomatic Service,
McDonald was responbile for over 14,000 staff in 270 posts
worldwide, worked for six foreign secretaries, and saw five prime
ministers operate at close quarters. Observing these people
undertaking the most important and often the most difficult work in
the country, he saw the behaviours that helped them to achieve
their objectives, and those which hindered them.
The recently-discovered letters of the wealthy
counter-revolutionary aristocrat, Innocente-Catherine de Rougé,
dowager duchess d’Elbeuf (1707-94), offer a vivid and exciting
new eye-witness perspective on the French Revolution and the
Terror. Hostile witness to everything about the Revolution, from
the noble revolt, the storming of the Bastille and the peasant
revolution in 1788-91, through to the outbreak of war, the
overthrow and trial of Louis XVI and the Terror in 1791-4, the
duchess’s letters to an unknown friend offer an unparalleled
real-time narrative by an aristocratic woman struggling to
understand radical change. Though tempted by emigration to the Low
Countries, the duchess was unusual among her contemporary
fellow-aristocrats in remaining in France down to her death in
1794, based in her two homes in Picardy and at the heart of Paris.
As well as providing a detailed account of all she saw and read,
the correspondence also portrays the anguished mental and spiritual
odyssey of a highly devout octogenarian woman, who persisted
inplangently declaring her outspokenly counter-revolutionary views
even as she approached her own death in conditions of great
personal danger. The letters constitute a remarkable example of
female life-writing at the heart of the Age of Revolutions from a
unique perspective.
When Abraham Lincoln said, 'You can be anything you want to be,'
Americans, and eventually everybody everywhere, lifted their
sights. Nowadays anybody can aspire to be a leader, and nearly
everybody has to lead sometimes. In his first book, Simon McDonald
assumes that thinking about leadership before you lead helps you to
lead better. No matter the circumstances in which we might be
called to lead - be it at work, on the sports field, or in the
community - the example of top leaders in politics and public
service (both their successes and shortcomings) can help you figure
out your own approach. Over nearly four decades in HM Diplomatic
Service, Simon worked for four permanent under-secretaries and a
dozen senior ambassadors before becoming permanent under-secretary
himself and leading the Service (which has over 14,000 staff in 270
countries worldwide) for five years. He also worked directly for
six foreign secretaries and saw five prime ministers work at close
quarters. Observing these people undertaking the most important and
often the most difficult work in the country, Simon saw the
behaviours which helped them achieve their objectives, and those
which hindered them. He then had the chance to try to apply that
learning. In a closing chapter that considers the future of
leadership in the UK, Simon McDonald makes a compelling case for
the reform of the monarchy, the cabinet, civil service and, in
particular, the House of Lords, of which he has been a member since
2021. Leadership of the United Kingdom is being debated as never
before. This book is a clear-sighted and insightful contribution to
that debate.
This Little Book focuses on encouraging emphasis on 'togetherness':
a move away from the individual and towards the collective.
Children in early years settings are faced with huge challenges
regarding socialisation, sharing and growing in responsibility, and
this book provides excellent opportunities for them and their
carers to address these issues through team play.
This Little Book is packed with games for wet days, hall times, and
just being together! It contains a collection of both familiar and
brand new games for small and larger groups of children, all of
which can be played using low cost and easily accessible resources.
Ideas for making and using puppets you have made yourself with the
children or using bought puppets. Ideas and activities for using
puppets in stories, circle time, rhythm, phonics, etc. and story
starter ideas.
When a university librarian is mugged and robbed of his winnings
outside a casino, DS Alistair MacRae assumes that it was an
opportunistic crime, But when other incidents involving him occur,
MacRae wonders whether there are other reasons for the crime When
the man is murdered, MacRae is sure he knows who is responsible.
But DCI Ian Forsyth has a better solution arrived at by the use of
logical deduction. When the fingerprints from the front man in a
financial scam are found at the scene of a murder, it is assumed
that the victim was his immediate superior in the scam. When two
further people with shady financial backgrounds are also killed,
MacRae believes that a man who lost heavily in the scam is
responsible. But Forsyth arrives at a different conclusion, is able
to interpret a clue left by the last victim and thus comes up with
the proof that will convince a jury that his solution is the
correct one.
Make music with everyday objects and use your own instruments to
accompany recorded music or familiar songs. The book includes body
rhythms, making sound with textures and surfaces, using beaters,
rhythm, creating sound environments.
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