The first academic casualty of the Boston College-Jean McConville furore has been a parallel project which was to involve a London-based historian and an ex-RUC officer as well as retired members of the Garda Siochana in the Irish Republic, all with long records in fighting terrorism.
It would be far-fetched to describe the US and Britain's long-term relationship with Saudi Arabia as a love affair, although elements of romance, blind infatuation and lustful mutual gratification have never been entirely absent.
The project, according to Shell, is "critical to Malaysia's long-term energy security".
In 2006 Lord Phillips, then lord chief justice, argued that politicians and judges had been pushed into handing down increasingly long sentences in England and Wales.
"The fact that Indonesia for a long time refused to even acknowledge that there was a double standard in their insistence that Australia was infringing their sovereignty by appealing for clemency, while at the same time appealing for clemency for its own citizens facing the death penalty in other countries, that has been really quite damaging from Australia's point of view," he said.
Within 24 hours of this happening Katie Hopkins posted vile remarks on Twitter about how long the people of Scotland live for.
But according to Carr the long-delayed decision on Australia's next submarine contract could also be seen as taking sides on regional security issues.
The former European trade commissioner said: "For far too long, those who want to destroy Britain's interests and influence in Europe have been allowed to get away with murder with the lies and false propaganda they have poured out about the European Union and what it represents for our country.
Britain should be proud of our long history of helping those fleeing persecution.
And then there is Canada, where the Parti Québécois has a long and chequered history of fighting for independence for the francophone province.
Nigeria has suffered from mediocre leadership for as long as I can remember.
