Highlights
I hate this
But does it matter? — I don’t usually say that sort of thing here. I try to be more measured, less personal. I’m talking about the police face recognition vans obviously. This might not surprise you: I mean that I don’t like them. I’m an old git after all, a man who’s written here before […]
Nearly half a bicycle
The atomic theory in Kilburn — This place (on Kilburn High Road) has been morphing steadily from dry cleaner’s to bike shop over the last few years. I remember being surprised one morning to see a few kids’ bikes lined up for sale outside but I’d say the shop is now approaching 50% bike shop. […]
Where is my patriotism?
Come, love of country, fill my heart… — I do love Britain. I guess I love England more. London most of all. I hope that in my life I’ve honoured the place I live and not disgraced it or undermined it (I support England and GB in sporting events – I fly a little flag […]
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An endless round of perfectly-formed gotchas
Some people can’t tell the difference between advertising billboards and politics. — What is it that’s so contemptible about these stupid stunts? This shallow, patronising bollocks? For liberals, this kind…
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The bankruptcy of the growth mindset
Of course he’s on LinkedIn — I shouldn’t be surprised that the British Prime Minister – any contemporary national leader, really – is on LinkedIn. It’s supposed to say “I…
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And your enemies closer
’Close-marking’ is an electoral strategy, the invention of the now legendary Labour Party spokesman Alastair Campbell and strategist Peter Mandelson. — The idea is that an opposition party assembles focus…
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End of the line
The Conservative Party is, famously, the most successful political party in history. — The party is a shape-shifting cockroach that’s survived the whole industrial era, the expansion of the franchise,…
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Metre disorder
I love poetry. I write poetry, I love rhyme and rhythm and structural play of all kinds. I write in rhyme. But I can’t see metre. — I know what…
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Civilianise the police
Trying to turn a 19th Century property-protection force, organised like the army, into a 21st Century organisation, modelled on a corporation, is a mug’s game. — The Met is in…
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How do you like your tradition?
Essentially perfect small town joy or ridiculous and contrived ceremonial fiction? — I was watching this ace video about the shrovetide madness that takes over in several small English towns…
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1998, the last time New York City had the correct amount of visual chaos
It was the end of history but it was before 9/11, before the dot.com crash, a whole decade before the Great Recession — Zuckerberg was still at school. I was…
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More Klingon than Starfleet
A Musk spaceship will be a Musk workplace — FURTHER UPDATE 13 January 2025. It’s difficult to know where this will end. Musk – a foreigner, remember – now has…