It is seldom that you come across a political book as clear and straightforward in its prognosis as Mark Leonard’s "Why Europe Will Run the 21st Century". The chapters flow with a clarity that is unusual for such a book,
Continue readingIf CNN is the face of globalisation??
??then we have to be quite worried. I am thankfully sheltered from CNN at home in London (the joy of terrestrial TV, and choosing your news sources on the internet) but come across it from time to time on my
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The ending of youth – now even in political terms
Each and every one of us has to cross the bridge at some point. From the security in the relative innocence of youth, we traverse to arrive in the hard world of adult life and realise all of what we
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The End of Faith
Some sort of deep scepticism about religion – not in terms of definition of whether God exists, but rather a concern about the institutions of religion – has been growing in my thoughts for some years. The book “The End
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Glorious Britain? Don’t think so
I am on my way out of London for a fortnight. I have been looking forward to this escape so much, and my determination to get away has been hugely amplified by the total mess that is Heathrow Airport, Terminal
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The NHS – almost too swift?
I wrote about my first experiences of the NHS in Lambeth / Clapham in a post a little while ago. Referral to the minor surgery clinic in Grantham Road, Stockwell, took a little more than a week to sort out,
Continue readingFat people in the air, luggage and duty free [UPDATED, 29.07.2005]
Following on from my other post about getting on planes… What are we supposed to do about other problems that afflict flying, namely luggage allocations, overweight passengers, and duty free?
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Fear on the Tube
It’s quite a horrid place at the best of times, but travel on the London Underground has become really more fraught than ever now. This article from BBC News Online is an excellent summary of how people are feeling, and
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London attacks – we must not lose our heads [UPDATED, 25.07.2005]
"If you can keep your head when all about you are losing theirs…"Rudyard Kipling, 1910 Never before have those words seemed so apt. For my fear today is that the country is starting to lose its head in its reaction
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Boris Johnson and the world of UK & EU political blogs
It seems that blogging has not really taken off in UK politics yet. Boris Johnson, now free from the mistress and the work he had to put in on the Conservative front bench has given it a go though, and
Continue readingBritish obsessions: plastic bags
I think UK supermarkets must be almost unique in Europe – they try to give you extra free plastic bags for your shopping, even when you don’t want them! In the rest of Europe, the situation is the opposite. The
Continue readingBlogging to Make Poverty History. Well, we should do a little bit…
It’s been an excellent campaign – I don’t know if anything has in recent times managed to capture the imagination of the UK population as the Make Poverty History Campaign has. And above all, their website campaign has been cool
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