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 […]


  • Blunkett’s ‘coiled spring’ interview in The New Statesman

    “Britain, says the Home Secretary, is now “like a coiled spring”, febrile and tense, and ominously on the lookout for scapegoats. David Blunkett interviewed by John Kampfner. Pity anyone whose…

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  • Words of Waldman

    Simon Waldman, a pioneer interpreter of the Internet to UK Plc (and the man responsible for The Guardian‘s absolute pre-eminence in cyberspace – perhaps also for its voodoo doll status…

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  • Two good articles from The NYRB

    From the current New York Review of Books, Freeman Dyson’s clever and humane review of Michael Crichton’s ‘Prey‘ – another blow against the tech determinists – and Timothy Garton Ash’s…

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  • Never mind congestion charging…

    …London needs one of these.

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  • The extreme case

    Labour MP and DCMS Select Committee member Derek Wyatt has laid out the case for radical reform of the BBC – cutting it back to Radio 2, Radio 4 and…

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  • What’s going on here, then?

    Found this in my referrer logs. Weird.

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  • A sunny day in Soho

    It was a beautiful day in Soho. Spring is definitely in the air.

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  • Online in Soho

    Blogging live via T-Mobile wi-fi from Star bucks in Wardour Street (about which I am, of course, very excited). Hotfoot from lunch with a headhunter who thinks all this blogging…

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  • Bowblog merchandise!

    I’ve always liked Cafe Press – a really simple way of creating and selling custom merchandise without actually having to do anything – so I thought I’d have a play…

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  • Massive sense of proportion failure

    Is it just me or is it completely inappropriate to send a boy whose main crime seems to be a chronic case of adolescent alienation to jail for two years…

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  • Is this cool?

    Or is it just completely trivial? My referrer log suggests I made it onto the Top-100 Most Linked-To Pages in the Last Three Hours page at Weblogs.com. I think this…

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  • Carter gets it

    How does 15 years working his way up the greasy pole in an ad agency followed by two years in the number two spot at a collapsing cable firm prepare…

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