In which I try, after 25 years of blogging, to drop the ironic stance a bit.
Don t be a costumed loon — It’s trivially easy to stand for Parliament in the UK. Any loon can do so. You need ten electors to nominate you and £500 for a deposit and it’s actually been getting easier. The deposit was introduced in 1918 (£150 quite a lot of money then). Before [ ]
But does it matter? — I don t usually say that sort of thing here. I try to be more measured, less personal. I m talking about the police face recognition vans obviously. This might not surprise you: I mean that I don t like them. I m an old git after all, a man who s written here before [ ]
Over 100 books from the dot-com era looking for an appreciative home Update: these books, plus some others, have now gone, as a donation, to the John Rylands Research Institute and Library at the University of Manchester, where they invented the programmable computer and where Alan Turing worked ffs. They ll be listed in the library [ ]
…the Crown must act — How to explain the persistence and apparent indestructibility of the British monarchy. More to the point, how to explain its desperate and paranoid response to the scrutiny of Parliament. Secular moderns – rational British grown-ups, middle class people who feel a bit uncomfortable about the Monarchy but wouldn’t go so [ ]
The Internet, which we thought was going to be liberating, turns out to be a tool of control: repressive, coercive and damaging to our most basic freedoms — So it has come to us, in a kind of dissilusioning rush, and much too late really, that the Internet (which we still deferentially capitalise, as if [ ]
It s a review of 2001: A Space Odyssey from my Hollywood history newsletter GROSS, but it s also an essay about working in space and a comparison with Director Bong s Mickey 17. — We’ll know that the exploitation of space is going to plan when they start sending workers up there. Elon Musk and Jeff Bezos [ ]
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. [ ]
I m having a bit of a clear-out. Here are some of the art books I ve accumulated over the years. All priced to sell (I don t think you ll find any of them for less online) and all available for immediate purchase on eBay. Click the eBay links to see many more pages from each book. The [ ]
Is the Israeli attack on Iran the first on a country that manufactures electric cars by one that doesn t? — I met this gorgeous car and its proud owner in Hendon the other day. He d first met the Hillman Hunter in Iran when he was a kid. Not this one it would have had [ ]
Public ownership as end-of-life care. — This is a quick note in response to the head-spinning fact that, apparently, both ends of the British Parliamentary political spectrum are now positively disposed to the idea of nationalising British Steel. I mean everyone s into. Nigel Farage s into it. Keir Starmer s into it. But, let s be clear, it s [ ]