11 Jul 2026

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 […]

3 Jun 2026

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 […]

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 […]


  • PR Works

    The recording industry has the best PR. Evidence: a quite startling suspension of balance on The BBC’s agenda setting morning news show The Today Programme today. An item, by Stephen…

    Read more

  • Reassembly in Wapping

    Half term is over but Olly (my four year-old) and I saw out our last day of freedom in style. We went to the handsome Wapping Project in… er… Wapping…

    Read more

  • Ouch

    Bill Thompson comes back stoutly to my sarcastic response to his BBC article about Google and the Bloggers. Read the comments here. The thing is, I usually find it difficult…

    Read more

  • Planet Parent

    Juliet’s latest column at Tigerchild is up. This week she discusses the difficulty she experienced bonding with our second baby Billie. It’s a very moving piece.

    Read more

  • Guardian.jpgMicropayments and probability

    I could have been kinder to the big brains at Peppercoin I’m sure but someone had to say it. This week’s Guardian column is about the latest brilliant but doomed…

    Read more

  • Blogger basher

    Bill Thompson has flipped. According to this article for the BBC (and in no particular order): blogging is not journalism and will not effect mainstream journalists, link frequency and pagerank…

    Read more

  • invisible architecture

    Should I tell the architects of BBC News Online‘s far-reaching redesign that, far from being confused, put off or even pleased by the redesign, I didn’t notice it at all…

    Read more

  • Note to self

    Check editor’s credentials carefully. HANNAH ARENDT’S NAZI EDITOR. From Amygdala

    Read more

  • Attention Deficit Cinema

    Waldman advocates tearing a century of movie culture into bleeding chunks and playing the whole lot back in no particular order – a sort of Attention Deficit Cinema. Personally, I…

    Read more

  • Drive-through zoo

    What’s the latest thinking on Safari Parks? A beautiful sunny Winter’s day, lots of entertaining animals (and a diverting attempt to eat our car by the giraffes) made for a…

    Read more

  • No substitute for a fat consulting fee

    I’ve just noticed that the sweeties at think tank Demos have given me a heart-warming credit on their new weblog. ‘Inpired by Steve Bowbrick’ it says. This is in lieu…

    Read more

  • Great writing

    This, from The Guardian’s John Sutherland, is how I’d like my column to read. Fat chance.

    Read more