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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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.
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Barry Cox again
On the strength of Barry Cox’s first provocative and wide-ranging lecture on the future of television, I’m looking forward to the next three. I don’t agree with everything he says…
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A self-perpetuating department of state
Barry Cox, commercial TV old-timer, says we should get started on the long slog to an open market for television now: “Does a mature liberal democracy such as the UK…