29 Jul 2025

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. […]

13 Jan 2025

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 […]

6 Sep 2024

Some bullet-points about regulation

In case you’d got the wrong idea about how the ’regulatory state‘ is supposed to work — UPDATED 23 May 2025. I could update this thing daily. Regulation is always a news story in the UK (Search any news service for ‘regulation‘ right now and you’ll get a long list of current news stories about […]


  • Is this thing on?

    I’m testing a bit of CSS diddling with some random words that should show that I’ve figured out how to style a blockquote properly: “But why is it so small?”

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  • eBay widgetised

    I’m sitting with Jonathan Gabbai from eBay at Olympia and he’s just told me about eBay To Go, which is a pretty nifty way of embedding practically any eBay object…

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  • Stopping a run

    So let’s go over the logic of a run on a bank again shall we. To begin with, I guess it’s worth repeating, a run is never a good thing,…

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  • Keen and Twitter

    Read a bit of Andrew Keen at lunchtime. I do feel like I ought to. I like heretics. Still, it’s a pretty miserable read. Immediately cheered up when I got…

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  • Transforming trade unions

    The debate about wage discipline leaves a lot unsaid. Unions, government and employers all have their points of view but none can acknowledge the simple economic truth that underlies the…

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  • Deli duel

    Here in Radlett on the Northern fringes of London’s suburbs we’re getting ready for an awesome deli smackdown. Yummies, the incumbent – just renovated and under new ownership – is…

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  • Hacking the iPhone

    I love this lad‘s story. I hope he can take this globe spanning triumph of geek ingenuity and teenage self-belief and build something really substantial on it. He’s just started…

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  • Mid-century masterpieces

    Another great big muscular 20th Century prom last night, with exceptional music from the old Austro-Hungary. I’m a sucker for this kind of ambitious, cerebral and passionate music: something dark…

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  • Making TV news more open

    Channel 5’s proposal to make TV news more honest should become a standard for transparency in media production. David Kermode announced that Channel 5 news is banning ‘noddies’ and some…

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  • OK. I give up

    No one liked the idea of my tumblelog over at Bowblr.com (geddit?). Everyone said it was a stupid idea to abandon Bowblog after five-and-a-half-years, not least because I’d have been…

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  • William Gibson

    William Gibson was in town. He was relaxed, stooped, quietly spoken. Tired, by the look of it. He’s promoting his new book. I’d never seen him before. Never even heard…

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  • Another post over at bowblr

    I’m now blogging over at tumblr. I’ve just put up a post about last night’s mind-blowing Stravinsky/Bernstein/Gershwin Prom. Go on then. Click!

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