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August August

iconic image of London Riots 2011
August is the coolest month.  Or rather, it seems, despite its reputation for quietude, to have a lot happen in it.  However, one needs to look back, probably to 1947 and the creation of India and Pakistan, to find another August quite as historic, on the world stage, and at home in Britain, as this one, in 2011.  Indeed, it would seem likely to say that, more or less, since August 1945, 2011 is the most fraught.  That's 64-66 years ago.  This August is seeing the apparent liberation of Tripoli and hence Libya, at last.  It has seen the riots in the UK that shocked the world (it was daily news in France where I have been this last fortnight).  And it has seen global economic turbulence that seemingly foretells the "decline and fall of the West" as Time put it on their cover.  With over a week to go, what else will this most august of months have to offer the world?

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