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 […]


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    I probably shouldn’t find this surprising really. Maybe it’s because the only MPs I’ve ever met looked to me like they would probably struggle to operate their own trouser buttons,…

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  • Nationalists on McCartney

    Diarmid Logan posts a bunch of links to nationalist media coverage for the McCartney story. Sobering (but not surprising?) to learn that the nationalist media is not 100% supportive of…

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  • Mr Showbiz

    Do not tell me you weren’t impressed by Gordon Brown’s ninth budget performance. He’s such a showman. He’s like a movie star of the Golden Age – a brooding matinee…

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  • Eclipsed

    Thanks to a gang of (presumably) drunken thugs in a Belfast bar, the 2nd-term Bush administration no longer has a reason to defer to the huge Irish-American vote on Northern…

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  • Bracing wasn’t it?

    Like a sort of constitutional cold shower. On balance, and setting aside the merits of the legislation itself (I know, I know…), I think last week’s strange and thrilling events…

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  • Terror’s pathetic end

    I may be Irish (mostly) and Catholic (technically) and a republican (instinctively) but I’ve spent my whole life on the British mainland and most of it watching the men of…

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  • Green paper not hatchet job shock

    I’ve been performing a detailed textual analysis of the Government’s BBC Green Paper – using the awesome analytic power of the ‘Find’ command (It’s easy: download the Green Paper and…

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  • Being afraid…

    Abridging ancient rights seems to come naturally to British Governments of all complexions. Something about power makes them itch – all those quaint checks and balances and constraints on power…

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  • Matron!

    British general election campaigns are sick. Or at least they exploit the sick. Each needs its iconic sick person: someone so desperate for treatment they can even entertain the prospect…

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  • The hackers are in charge now

    Blogging ‘the hacker ethic‘ over at Thinking Ethics…

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  • Repeat after me:

    It is

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  • There are two kinds of blog

    There are obviously more than two kinds of blog. I suppose I mean here are two kinds of blog. Anyway, there’s the kind that’s so stuffed with actionable nuggets, little…

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