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 […]


  • Lawyers and tailors

    My undeniably sharp-suited lawyer Mark Lloyd is finally blogging properly. He writes nicely and his entries are varied. I only mention his dress sense because he links to this really…

    Read more

  • Thinking Ethics: The Book

    A couple of months ago I went to Geneva to spend a weekend talking about business ethics with a bunch of thinkers, theologians, business leaders and other brainy types. Beth…

    Read more

  • Looking for a simple survey tool

    I’d like to be able to run the odd survey here for my esteemed sponsors so I’m looking for a free (preferably) survey tool that could be installed by a…

    Read more

  • Oh God…

    At $280 Google is valued at $78 Billion. That’s 50% more than the combined value of all the publicly traded newspaper groups in the US combined. Analysts seem to be…

    Read more

  • Hutton on the Euro-crisis

    Clever and persuasive piece by Will Hutton from Sunday’s Observer about the crisis produced by the French and Dutch ‘no’ votes. He provides a very neat pair of scenarios (one…

    Read more

  • A car

    Because I am basically a small boy I find myself linking, almost automatically, to this preview of the 2007 Ford Shelby GT500. Like many men of my age, I retain…

    Read more

  • More radio gems

    You’ll cry. You will. This programme (MP3) about a scheme encouraging imprisoned parents to record bedtime stories for their kids at home is a gem. And before you get on…

    Read more

  • Europe 2.0?

    It’s an epic defeat for the European establishment but that doesn’t make it a victory for the isolationists and sceptics. Once the dust settles, once Giscard’s Napoleonic (and paralysingly boring)…

    Read more

  • Hitchens action

    If Andrew Marr continues to produce Start The Weeks (MP3) of this quality on his departure from the big politics job at the Beeb it’ll all be worth it. William…

    Read more

  • iPhoto attempts to ruin my life

    I upgraded to iLife 05 (still using Panther). iPhoto 5.02 seemed to be quite happy but then my gorgeous 2 year-old girl switched off the external firewire drive the iPhoto…

    Read more

  • A blogging mini-conference in June

    Listen, if it’s raining in the afternoon on Tuesday 28 June and you’re in the West End, drop into this NMK blogging conference. I’m chairing the event, divided into two…

    Read more

  • Titter ye not

    Can’t beat a 21st Century Eurovision Song Contest for lessons on the dynamics of the new Europe. Talk about New vs. Old. Fringe vs. centre. East vs. West. Anyway, the…

    Read more