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 […]
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The new Greg Dyke, more like…
Jana Bennet, the BBC’s new Director of Television, comes out fighting in Media Guardian.
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By the way…
Postman’s Park in the City is a reminder of London’s continuing power to surprise. A 50ft long ceramic tile memorial in a quiet park buried amongst the commercial buildings –…
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31p per day…
Steve Barnett is a media academic and a prominent defender of British broadcasting’s mythic quality and distinctiveness – and, of course, the licence fee. In his response to Barry Cox’s…
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The Nelson Mandela International Peace Force…
David Aaronovitch finds good reasons for liberals to support the war in The Observer.
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Air-heads?
Azeem alerts me to Tony Perkins’ latest project. Perkins is an interesting figure: a glamorous member of a Sand Hill Road tech VC dynasty, founder of the Silicon Valley bible…
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Vàclav Havel
If you were brought up in Britain and on the left, like me, the Vàclac Havel of Soviet-era Czechoslovakia was an exotic and quite difficult figure. By the time I…
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Nice weather…
…if you didn’t actually have to go anywhere.