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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    A genuinely green car is, of course, impossible. Moving a tonne of steel and plastic around could never use no energy at all and even the zero emissions hydrogen fuel…

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  • Buy this thing

    It looks like a home enema kit but you are definitely going to need this baby for your upcoming fortnight in Suffolk or the Dordogne or wherever you take your…

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  • Top media people

    I feel obliged to link to The Guardian’s MediaGuardian 100, even if only for the old outboard brain, but I also have to link to Russ Taylor’s commentary. He’s an…

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  • 25% of Anglican vicars are metrosexual

    It’s not a new term but ‘metrosexual’ is ready for primetime and is now a fully-fledged market segment. The New York Times profiled an actual specimen a couple of weeks…

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  • Platform frenzy

    Nigel Walley is a partner at clever iTV consultancy Decipher and the motor behind an intriguing research and viewing facility called iBurbia. Nigel reckons iBurbia is the only set-up in…

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  • OS X wisdom

    I’ve been using Macs since 1985 (I make that 18 years) so I’ve felt at home there for a long time but OS X is a fascinating and foreign place…

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  • Mailer, Bush and the war

    Whatever you think of it, this is one of those articles you’re going to want to have read. You’ll thank me for linking to it ? no, really, you will.…

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  • Boys

    As father of two girls and a boy I really enjoyed Jenni ‘Woman’s Hour’ Murray’s

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  • Last week’s media news today!

    I’m a week behind (blame recent sleep deprivation) but there were some really good articles in last Monday’s Media Guardian. David Liddiment, who used to be in charge of programming…

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  • The downside

    Rosa is nine weeks old. She turns out to be entirely adorable – but then I would say that. Juliet’s latest column for Tigerchild (written a couple of weeks ago)…

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  • How buildings get smart

    Owen Gibson is worrying about the slow arrival of the ‘smart home’ in The Guardian. Like him, I remember those Sunday Supplement photos of the prototypical wired home back in…

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  • Do me a favour and read this lot…

    If I had time I’d probably be reading things like Edward Sheehan’s The Map and the Fence from the NYRB, Edward Said’s A Road Map to Where? from the LRB,…

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