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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Cameron’s drug hell
I honestly wouldn’t have dreamt of getting my oar in here (private grief and all that…) if the Tory Party leadership contest hadn’t become so God-damn entertaining. Cameron’s refusal to…
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Dodgy country reports send refugees back to their doom
Important journalism from Dominic Arkwright on the BBC’s Broadcasting House Sunday Morning news show. It turns out that the ‘country reports’ produced by the Home Office on which immigration service…
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Saving Radlett Fire Station
Radlett, the nice Hertfordshire suburb in which I live, is famous for many things – swinging, prostitution and credit card theft, for instance – but it also has a fire…
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Piece of cake, this futurology
I feel obliged to draw your attention to September’s disastrous fall in sales of SUVs (4x4s as we call them here) in the US, not least because, back in May,…
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Real cowboys and Indians
I bookmarked the National Cowboy Museum’s amazing rodeo history archive at del.icio.us (now defunct) but the site has many other amazing assets, including a library of photographs of native Americans…
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Enfranchising prisoners
The European Court of Human Rights has ruled that Britain should allow prisoners the vote. I’ve always felt uncomfortable with denying prisoners the vote. It’s an arbitrary, petty and outdated…
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Get over it
A genuinely free market will produce whatever you need whenever you need it. so here you can create your own church signs. And why not?
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Links are back
So I spent about two months fiddling with my blogroll and tried a few ways of keeping it up-to-date and now, at last, it’s back. So, if you’re one of…
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More Japanese corporate history
I love these Japanese corporate history sites – in fact, I’m becoming a bit of a connoisseur. Nikon‘s is a treat, and all the better for the wobbly translation: I,…
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Go analogue
Will digital cameras ever acquire the butch glamour of the classic mechanical bullet-stoppers of the 35mm era? Common sense says ‘I suppose so’ but I can’t see it myself. Digital…
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Some things are only possible on the radio
Three beautiful and evocative examples of the art of radio from the Radio 4 treasure trove. Last week’s Open Country, a really fascinating programme about East Anglian Churches and Chapels,…
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Is Wolfowitz going native?
The World Bank’s 2006 World Development Report (download the report here and the overview here) provides at least some evidence that Bush crony and super-hawk Paul Wolfowitz hasn’t taken advantage…