Highlights
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 […]
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 […]
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A small bookclub
All these novels have fewer than 200 pages, some of them fewer than 100. Together they make up the first couple of batches of books in my family’s Small Book…
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Assisted dying or compulsory suicide?
Do your duty, prepare for your departure. — Tl;dr: Our medical/care system is screwed, governments are all efficiency- and cost-obsessed. They’re fixated on ageing and on the explosion of the…
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How do you fund a monarchy?
There are only two ways: taxation or plunder — In modern monarchies it’s tricky. The sovereign can no longer send soldiers from town to town to extract funds and, since…
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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…
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Look like you mean it
Riot season arrived on schedule. — Back in the old days… …lefties used to say things like “the forces of reaction – the capitalists and their proxies – divide us…
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Tape trauma
In the late eighties I lived in the East End of London and I used to rent movies from a little video shop on the A11 near Bow Road underground…
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Eras, golden ages, long decades – periodising the movies
I wrote this to avoid writing about Disney’s big hit of 1946 — Here’s another post lifted from my cinema history newsletter GROSS. I’m reviewing the top-grossing Hollywood movie from…
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Apex capitalism
The Apple Vision Pro represents the end of something. Or possibly the beginning. It’s an apex product from an apex economy. — (updated on 10 June with some new market…
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La Calahorra, Andalucia, 1982
A beautiful village on the edge of a dusty plain on the Northern edge of the Sierra Nevada in Southern Spain. More on Flickr.
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On the spectrum
Two novels, one small and mean, one vast and generous, both magnificent — This year I started a bookclub in our house – with mixed results if I’m honest. It’s…