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 […]


  • Beating child labour

    The Gap (and lots of other Western businesses) have invested a lot of money in systems to monitor supplier labour practices because they don’t like to be thought of as…

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  • WORST. MEETING. EVER

    I’ll tell you what; I despise Yahoo! for what they did to poor Shi Tao in China last year – even more because they apparently don’t plan to stop giving…

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  • Population… again

    Bloody population. I know it’s a big deal. I know that kneejerk liberal acceptance of uncontrolled growth is hardly better than kneejerk xenophobic rejection of immigration. I know that Britain’s…

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  • William Robert Bowbrick, B.E.M.

    17 February 1921 – 11 October 2007.

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  • Green ecommerce?

    I’m blogging in my professional capacity over at blogs.shave.com/digital (must do something about that picture). I’ve been figuring out what a medium-sized manufacturer with half a dozen well-known brands (like…

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  • The smug interrogating the incompetent

    Is it just me or was there something nauseating about watching a gang of smug, know-nothing MPs with their jackets over their chairs and their hands behind their heads grilling…

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  • Oi! referendum monkeys!

    The political classes and the media should seize on the reform treaty referendum as an opportunity to spread understanding and get people talking. I’ll keep this brief (my wife says…

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  • Postal tipping point

    Tick tock tick tock. Time is moving on. Change is about to catch up with the Royal Mail. What worries me about the postal strike is that the men and…

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  • Bunnies

    Well I was just going into a sort of reverie about the lovely new Sony ad and thinking things like “I wonder if that’s what big brand advertising is for…

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  • Misfit at Number 10

    I’m sticking grimly with my image of Gordon Brown as Machiavellian hardman here. Although I suppose a week of political cock-ups: the disastrously managed Iraq announcement, the entirely unnecessary will-he-won’t-he…

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  • Union trouble

    What’s with the unions? Can’t they see that working people in a globalised economy need smart, strategic representation, not belligerence? Strikes are uncool. Strikers are uncool. They’re aggressive, negative, out-of-date.…

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  • Tory softies blow it again…

    The Tories are looking pretty pleased with their shadow chancellor’s inheritance tax plan but Brown’s on his way back to town – and he’s going to wipe the smile off…

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