Highlights
Count Binface and electoral theatre
Don’t be a costumed loon — It’s trivially easy to stand for Parliament in the UK. Any loon can do so. You need ten electors to nominate you and £500 for a deposit – and it’s actually been getting easier. The deposit was introduced in 1918 (£150 – quite a lot of money then). Before […]
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 […]
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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Lots of good politics this week
Climate change – some kind of watershed. Iraq – another watershed?. Immigration – the numbers confirm Britain is a net consumer of migrants and has become a kind of ‘interchange’…
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George Monbiot is annoying
Look. I know. You’re going to think this is petty (or just stupid… or hateful) but the annoying thing about Britain’s overnight conversion to the need for action on climate…
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A failure of nerve on immigration from accession states
Britain deserves better than a knee-jerk ban on Bulgarian and Romanian migrants Closing the door to Romanians and Bulgarians is not irrational. No nation should be obliged to provide unlimited…
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Nasty news from Tibet
This video, which looks horrifyingly like one of the dopey Flash shooting games my son plays, ran as an exclusive on ITV News this evening but it’s evidently been on…
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Wanted: PHP5 or Rails coder for eBay widget
Could you code a clean, usable web widget using the eBay API. Required functionality • The widget will display a user’s eBay items for sale (and possibly some other stuff)…
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Today’s stupidest job title
Independent Domestic Violence Advocate I know it’s not really funny and I know this is a serious job dealing with sad people and I’m pretty sure this job doesn’t actually…
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Another sad, jug-eared Tory comes out…
I bring you – without comment, of course – the voting record of Gregory Barker, utterly true blue MP for the constituency of Bexhill and Battle. I think you’ll also…
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Neglect, plain and simple
This note was sent downstairs long after bedtime by my eight year-old last night. He got his sister to bring it down because he’d been sent back to bed without…
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Competition in unexpected places
Competition has already arrived in bits of the marketplace that seemed out of reach not long ago: domestic electricity and gas supply for instance. So called ‘natural’ monopolies turn out…
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Hungary 1956 links
A handful of interesting archival videos at YouTube, including this lovely 90 seconds of trams in Budapest (nothing to do with the uprising, though, as far as I can see).…
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Computing in a (really big) box
Sun’s big black shipping container is the most exciting thing to happen in computer hardware since they stopped shipping them with casters.. I remember sitting around rapping with my friends…