…of what I expect will be a very long series. First up, then – personalised number plates. I remember explaining the British number plate system to a German friend, and almost causing him to choke on his beer when I revealed how much people will pay for a particularly apt plate. I suppose if you… Continue reading Little things for which I have an irrational loathing. Number 1
For reasons which are actually mundane, but which I won’t reveal in order to maintain an air of spurious mystery, I have to visit Birmingham twice a year. Once again this time, I stayed at Jonathan’s, and it is a strange experience. Jonathan’s presents itself as a Victorian “experience”- and it is – but far… Continue reading A real pea-souper, and no mistake, guv’nor…
The growing influence of blogs in public policy is well-documented. Norman Geras and the Euston Manifesto is a blog phenonomenon. More evidence that blogs are changing things is the appearance of Alasdair Gray’s blog. Here’s a leading writer and artist publishing thoughts and new material freely to the web. This, it seems to me, is… Continue reading Blog Power
Those pesky detainees, eh? What to do when they insist on pulling publicity stunts? I have a modest proposal. We all know these are very dangerous men, locked up for years because they are terrorists conducting a secret war against America – so secret in fact, that we can’t possibly allow any of the evidence… Continue reading Exterminate all the brutes
Potter Author ‘The Best Living Writer’ – Yahoo! News UK If she beat “Salmon Rushdie” then this is obviously fishy…
As I write this, I’m listening to Jacob Heringman playing Dowland. It’s sublime. Dowland is, to me, the greatest. His Lachrimae Antiquae Novae will accompany my body when it’s consigned to the earth or the flames. So, I was a little startled when ‘er indoors alerted me to this. With that marvellous gift for oversimplification… Continue reading Sting 0 Dowland 6
BBC NEWS | Education | Lecturers call for Israel boycottFollowing this ridiculous motion, which is NATFHE’s last significant act before the merger with AUT, I have resigned my membership. It is grotesque to require people to, in effect, declare their non-allegiance to their government before being accepted in the academic community. What’s proposed here is… Continue reading NATFHE’s last act
Poppycock Dalrymple is always challenging the orthodoxy, but does it from a position of strength – he knows about these people, he’s done his time with them, so for me, his ideas have a greater resonance than those of some well-heeled politician showing how compassionate he is. I think he’s spot on about the Romantics’… Continue reading Poppycock
I remember as a teenager the excitement caused by the arrival of first the beat groups and then the rock bands of the late sixties and early seventies. These guys (and they were nearly all guys) were a few years older than the fans, and were god-like figures, with great manes of hair and impossibly… Continue reading Rock of Ages
Education news & jobs at the Times Higher Education Supplement It was inevtiable that the impasse over the pay offer would lead to local bargaining, and I’m amazed the union negotiators didn’t do more to head it off, especially as they are apparently blessed with telepathic powers, according to this report, where the chair of… Continue reading More trouble at mill…