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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Howard returns to type
Nice to see Howard’s disreputable move into immigration and asylum come back and bite him but his campaign is still flatlining (I do like that phrase) and his team rebelling…
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Ivor Cutler
When I was a kid (this would be about 1970), I discovered, in a cupboard at home, a huge open-reel tape recorder, bought by my Dad in the 1950s. I…
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Protect your family…
Best spam this week… Easily. In the picture, that’s a model, right? “Armored Vehicle protection. So you have it covered, finances in place, investment portfolio don’t stable, don’t under control……
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Murdoch gets religion (finally)
In 1995 I tried (for about ten minutes) to persuade Rupert Murdoch to give the keynote speech at the Internet World London conference that year. In my address book (which…
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I’m impressed (and relieved)
Really. I am. Labour’s campaign is good. On stage yesterday, at the manifesto launch, the front bench was awesome – handing off and harmonising like The Beach Boys. Brown’s seething…
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John Berger is back
When I was young, I used to love John Berger. Then I went off to college in the Big City and quickly learnt that he was out-of-date: a crusty old…
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My fantasy
My wife thinks I’m naive (or it might have been ‘stupid’ – I can’t remember). Anyway, I have a fantasy: Tony and Gordon are good mates. Really. They’ve been together…
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So long Longbridge
Heart-breaking business reality finally steam-rollers the Rover dream. Having been through one liquidation (a bit smaller, I’ll admit) I feel pretty confident in saying that Rover is tragically but definitely…
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Book review: Hypercard reborn?
Going on twenty years ago Hypercard, created by Bill Atkinson, felt like something helicoptered in from a William Gibson novel. “Make my own computer programmes? Pretty ones with sounds and…
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Phil Gyford fixed my blog
Not many people can say that. The master has very kindly been picking over the entrails of my blog and it should now be working nicely on all platforms and…
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I’m back (like you’ve been missing me…)
I’ve been to Ireland with the family for a few days. We stayed on my cousin’s farm (complete with ducks and calves and so on) and we are now sorely…