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. You […]
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 on […]
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 regulating […]
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The bankruptcy of the growth mindset
Of course he’s on LinkedIn I shouldn’t be surprised that the British Prime Minister – any contemporary national leader, really – is on LinkedIn. It’s supposed to say “I live…
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And your enemies closer
’Close-marking’ is an electoral strategy, the invention of the now legendary Labour Party spokesman Alastair Campbell and strategist Peter Mandelson. The idea is that an opposition party assembles focus groups…
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End of the line
The Conservative Party is, famously, the most successful political party in history. The party is a shape-shifting cockroach that’s survived the whole industrial era, the expansion of the franchise, the…
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Metre disorder
I love poetry. I write poetry, I love rhyme and rhythm and structural play of all kinds. I write in rhyme. But I can’t see metre. I know what metre…
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Civilianise the police
Trying to turn a 19th Century property-protection force, organised like the army, into a 21st Century organisation, modelled on a corporation, is a mug’s game. The Met is in trouble…
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How do you like your tradition?
Essentially perfect small town joy or ridiculous and contrived ceremonial fiction? I was watching this ace video about the shrovetide madness that takes over in several small English towns in…
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1998, the last time New York City had the correct amount of visual chaos
It was the end of history but it was before 9/11, before the dot.com crash, a whole decade before the Great Recession Zuckerberg was still at school. I was in…
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More Klingon than Starfleet
A Musk spaceship will be a Musk workplace FURTHER UPDATE 13 January 2025. It’s difficult to know where this will end. Musk – a foreigner, remember – now has the…
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Bureacracy in deep space
If you want to understand the state of the art in space-age capitalism you must visit the HR department Everyone knows that it’s in Human Resources that you’ll find the…