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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Why I’m getting lots of extra traffic (and still won’t be buying any Google shares)
Bowblog’s site traffic has nearly doubled in the last few weeks. I’d like to think this has something to do with the sustained wit and verve of my writing but…
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The return of Shock and Awe
I remain (queasily) supportive of the overall aims of the invasion of Iraq and even (implausibly) optimistic about the likely outcome but I’m certain that AC130 gunships, first used to…
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Management lessons from Ramsay and Blair
I always had Gordon Ramsay down as a superannuated Sunday Supplement wanker. Tonight I saw the first of his Kitchen Nightmares on Channel 4, in which he was parachuted into…
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Sharing recipes
Foodster is a lovely idea but shouldn’t it be a Wiki?
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On two wheels
If you’re a parent (or if you’ve ever been a small child), you’ll understand the significance of this picture. Olly, 5, learned how to ride his bike without stabilisers. We…
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Misguided spam warrior
If you’re the Northern gentleman who calls me on my mobile at all hours of the day and night (01:15, Saturday morning, for instance), withholds his phone number and then…
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Big journalism
Vintage Vanity Fair this month (May). Great pity you can’t get this stuff online (can you?) – you’ll have to buy a copy. Dominick Dunne forgives Martha Stewart (he’s a…
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The New Localism
Alan Milburn, proper Blairite (retired), has got the faith (you’ll need to have a FT.com subscription). He thinks Labour’s third term goal should be ‘subsidiarity‘. He wants Labour to embrace…
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Do me a favour, Ms Figueroa!
The sainted geeks at Google want to read your email and embed relevant ads in return for 1GB of free storage. News at 11. Sounds like a pretty good trade.…
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Images of the lost
Beautiful and melancholy images from a profoundly lost era – Irwin Klein’s photographs of hippy settlers in New Mexico in the late Sixties. The kids in these photos would now…