Absolute Shambles

'Your task will not be an easy one. Your enemy is well trained, well equipped and battle-hardened. He will fight savagely... I have full confidence in your courage, devotion to duty and skill in battle. We will accept nothing less than full victory! Good luck! And let us all beseech the blessing of Almighty God upon this great and noble undertaking'- Dwight D. Eisenhower, in an address to the Allied Expeditionary Force, 2 June 1944 Absolute Shambles  has reached its penultimate post. Much like the premiership of Theresa May , the end to this turbulent and embarrassing time in history is coming to an end. The very small but loyal following (please make yourself known) are probably sobbing uncontrollably and are disturbing anyone who comes across them as they spill their tears on the floor while huddled in a ball. For everyone else, the closing of the blog is likely met with reactions such as 'Who the hell cares?', 'Ben had a blog?' and 'Finally, more focus ...

'One of the key problems today is that politics is such a disgrace. Good people don't go into government'- Donald Trump (can you smell the irony?) There's been a landslide victory in the recent elections in Ukraine. Petro Poroshenko has served as President of Ukraine since 2014, after previously serving as Minister of Foreign Affairs, Minister of Trade and Economic Development and even as head of the Council of Ukraine's National Bank. His connections to big businesses due to his status as a prominent oligarch in Ukraine (Petro owns confectionery brand Roshen and TV channel 5 kanal ) has given Petro a strong ring of contacts that only strengthened his power. Although Poroshenko rose to the head of government in the aftermath of a revolution in 2014 that toppled the pro-Russian government, his credentials were still decent. He lost to a comedian who plays the Ukrainian president on a TV show. All smiles (AFP) With around 73% of the popular vote, Volodymyr Zele...

'Hockey is a sport for white men. Basketball is a sport for black men. Golf is a sport for white men dressed like black pimps'- Tiger Woods As time marches on, the idols that we grew up with slowly move into the chronicles of history. Footballing legends in the time of young Ben, such as Frank Lampard and Steven Gerrard, have ditched the boots and now stalk the dugouts as managers. Gary Neville and Jamie Carragher, once fierce rivals on the pitch, now duke it out on Sky Sports as part of their inspiring bromance, while also lending their voices as co-commentators. Brian O'Driscoll now spends his time on BT Sport to discuss rugby, while Jeremy Guscott finds himself alongside the lovely Gabby Logan on the BBC to pick apart that wonderful game with the egg-shaped ball. Oh, and Tim Henman, once Britain's best tennis player, can now be found in a studio once Wimbledon rolls around (yes, he's a legend- he wasn't great, but he was the best we had). But there is one m...

'The first draft is just you telling the story'- Terry Pratchett When you have spent a large portion of your life reading, writing and researching, one might term you to be some sort of 'academic'. This humble blogger does have an extensive collection of books and can easily find access to a pipe or smoking jacket, but would certainly not class himself amongst these titans of literature. Yet the pull of being accepted into this cult (surely there are rituals and secret handshakes being conducted in their secret meeting places?) is a strong one. The thought of diverting time and effort into creating a piece of work that someone might actually find useful as either a scholarly work or handy doorstop is intriguing. Writing a dissertation was difficult enough, especially when translating German and Russian documents, but it was good conditioning if you wanted to pursue even higher levels of education. Besides, history is awesome , so it was all totally worth it. This i...