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 […]
Browse by year
Latest
-
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…
-
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,…
-
Sainsbury’s arrives
Round here everyone’s been talking about the opening of a dinky branch of Sainsbury’s in the village. It’s one of the firm’s tiny convenience stores (no car park, no deli,…
-
I’ve come over all 1950
Wired on private space planes, New Scientist on flying cars (you need a subscription or a free trial to see this one).
-
Yes, but it’s so practical…
Around the time we acquired our third child we also acquired a ‘people mover’ (or an ‘MPV’) like the one in the picture and now we’ve been forcibly recruited to…
-
Keeping an eye on Ofcom
I can’t tell from his weblog what Luke Gibbs does for a living but I think he’s going to save me a lot of effort by trawling the media to…
-
Cheer up. It might never happen…
I’ve been sarcastic about Steven Pinker’s knee jerk Darwinism in the past but this piece from today’s Guardian is the best debunking yet of the apocalyptic strain of genetic futurology…
-
Neocon update
If you’re trying to keep up with the progress of the hyper-adapted neocon meme – coming soon to a democracy near you – this very good NYRB article by Elizabeth…
-
The contemporary British family revealed
Our friend Fiona Kenneth has made two wonderful programmes in a series of programmes about modern relationships, called Mr & Mrs. This is great documentary making in an important British…