March 2012
2 posts
When Twitter made me sound like a Tory
Twitter, the current darling of new media whatever, has long bugged me for one major reason - while 140 characters are enough to express a thought or an opinion, they leave no room for nuance. 140 characters are enough for a snark, for a slogan or for a simply expressed opinion. They’re not enough for conveying any further data. That opinion has to stand by itself, like a political slogan on...
February 2012
2 posts
… And even more than the foregoing, more...
More news bulletins should open like this.
January 2012
2 posts
“Oh, Geoffrey!”
A rather excellent...
Things Churchill didn't say, or why the right is...
Right-wing people always seem to enjoy quoting a line that’s usually attributed to Winston Churchill:
“If you’re not a liberal when you’re 25, you have no heart. If you’re not a conservative by the time you’re 35, you have no brain.”
As with many things he’s quoted as having said, Churchill didn’t say that. As the Churchill Centre...
December 2011
1 post
I must have been bored this evening - but if you...
November 2011
1 post
I guess I got tired of hosting my own blog
After all, I hardly ever posted to the thing. Why keep Movable Type around just for that? Take it away, the cloud.
July 2011
1 post
The Mysterious Affair of the Midnight Intervention
The surreal Westminster story of the day concerns the blocked election of Labour MP Cathy Jamieson - who has knowledge and experience of issues related to the current excitement - to the Culture, Media and Sport Select Committee which today will be grilling the Murdochs. Select committee appointments are generally uncontroversial and unopposed. In fact, there’s even a cross-party...
June 2011
1 post
May 2011
6 posts
Was it really Osama?
Okay, let’s look at the evidence: Straggly beard Lives spartan existence Extremely leery of the latest technology Employs absurdly longwinded techniques for reading web pages Highly fundamentalist beliefs At odds even with many sympathisers Although widely considered irrelevant is still a hero to many Doesn’t celebrate Christmas Does not own a cellphone due to fears of being tracked...
Cycling Explained: Why Cav is pissed off.
So, it’s stage two of the Giro d’Italia (that’s the Tour of Italy, the Italian version of the Tour de France), and Manx sprinter Mark Cavendish has just pulled on the pink jersey which tells the world he’s currently in the overall lead at the race. He should be happy - the pink jersey in the Giro is pretty damn prestigious.
But he’s got a face like an angry, uh, like...
April 2011
6 posts
2 tags
Those bloody gates of Downing Street
I remember when the huge black gates went up at the entrance to Downing Street:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Downing_Street#Downing_Street_gates
At the time they were regarded as a sign of how detached from the people the Thatcher government had become. Tony Blair promised to tear them down. Didn’t happen.
Now I see that David Cameron needs a bigger motorcade than the Queen to get from...
Apologies to those who saw this earlier, but... →
Royal Wedding marketing tie-in of the day..
To: me Subject: Who’s gonna clean up the mess after the wedding?
Hi Mike Well, we’re pretty sure Kate and William will not be doing it! But, if you’re having a party this weekend and you need a skip to help you clean up the mess afterwards, don’t forget “your friendly neighbourhood Topskips.com” is here to help you with a skip should you need one next week. What’s more, if you quote...