Quiz | February
I used to think that February was the worst month, no every month feels like an endless February
How Matt Hancock broke the law | And why it matters
Matt Hancock was found this week to have broken the law by failing to publish the details of contracts awarded without competition for goods and services such as personal protective equipment (PPE) needed during the covid-19 pandemic. This is the first of a series of Judicial Reviews by an eccentric group of lawyers called The… Read More How Matt Hancock broke the law | And why it matters
How the Government will fuck up the NHS | Centralisation not privatisation is the problem
The Government has announced it’s new plans for NHS reform, the draft of which was leaked a week or 2 ago. Fuck is a strong word for a headline, but I am afraid that’s what is about to happen. The Lansley reforms of the NHS will be reversed, along with almost all of the internal… Read More How the Government will fuck up the NHS | Centralisation not privatisation is the problem
Maureen Colquhoun RIP | The world before woke | Updated
Maureen Colquhoun died this week aged 92. She was the first openly gay MP in the modern era. This might come as a surprise to a lot of people who believed that the first MPs to come out were Chris Smith for Labour and Matthew Parris for the Conservatives, in the 1980s. Maureen Colquhhoun was… Read More Maureen Colquhoun RIP | The world before woke | Updated
Did Brexit help Britain succed at vaccinations? | How the UK went from the worst performing country in Europe to the best
Did Brexit help Britain succeed at Vaccinations? Did it help us do better than the EU? No. Britain’s success on vaccination has nothing to do with Brexit, not matter how many flags people wave Britain performed catastrophically badly on Covid in 2020 because the Government put their mates in charge of it, who outsourced it… Read More Did Brexit help Britain succed at vaccinations? | How the UK went from the worst performing country in Europe to the best
Fund the Police | Police, cuts and race
Last summer my son was the victim of a racist incident. Not an attack or anything violent. But racist behaviour by a public official. Britain has come a long way on race, and we are noticeably less racist than we were a generation ago, but over the last few years things have started going… Read More Fund the Police | Police, cuts and race
Quiz | January
Nightmare Trump Departs | The End of Trumpism
With Trump finally leaving office I asked some Trump fans to write with their view on his Presidency. None took up the offer, so I thought I would write something myself, a sequel to my blog on Nightmare Trump Art: There are lots of ways you can categorise politicians; left and right, liberal or… Read More Nightmare Trump Departs | The End of Trumpism
Predictions 2021
2020 was so awful that if we had found Godzilla tearing apart our local branch of Sainsbury’s our first thought would be to loot the ruins for toilet paper and pasta. Brexit will be a shambles, starting with the failure to recruit customs officers or build them anywhere to work. The Government and the press… Read More Predictions 2021
Best of 2020 | Music
Another year in which pop music shifted even further away from skinny white boys with guitars. The most interesting music came at the intersection of soul, r’n’b, jazz and hip-hop, particularly against the background of Black Lives Matters. African pop also continues to produce a steady stream of exciting new stuff. Brittany Howard. OK, so… Read More Best of 2020 | Music