Why Starmer’s going after the Lords
It’s not just the government that’s now beholden to forecasts from the Office for Budget Responsibility. Keir Starmer told the…
The truth about the World Cup
You have to admire their bravery, don’t you? The stoicism with which they put up a fight in the name…
Portrait of the week
Home The Supreme Court ruled that the Scottish government does not have the power to hold an independence referendum without…
Like Topsy
I’ve heard two people in the past week make a jocular remark about things just growing ‘Like Topsy’. They were…
French polish
At the end of last century, when there were grounds for optimism about Russia’s future, an increasingly popular word expressed…
‘We’ can’t know how the very poorest live
I’ve been conducting a straw poll. Using incidental encounters with people who don’t follow politics closely, I’m learning what ordinary…
What the media is doing to our politics
An American academic told me that during the 2016 presidential election nobody in academia believed there was the faintest chance…
Bread pudding
I am incapable of throwing anything away in the kitchen. In my fridge, there must be at least half a…
My prescription for surviving the winter
Winter is finally upon us and I’m relying on my usual array of tablets and powders to ward off seasonal…
The welcome death of the ‘my truth’ investment boom
A colourful selection of news items this week seem to have a central thread. Elizabeth Holmes, founder of the Theranos…
What price fairness?
Once the energy price cap expires in April, the Chancellor is apparently considering the levy of ‘social tariffs’ on the…
