This weeks Daily Mirror covers the evolving mess that is Kickstart – the Government’s £2bn flagship scheme to help young people who are out of work. Of course you read it all here first: We are still not allowed to join Kickstart, and I believe that thousands of other small businesses are in the same… Read More Kickstart | More failure, less accountability
Yet another blog about hapless hospital botherer and haunted dishcloth Matt Hancock This week the Government announced an inquiry into the relationship between Greensill Capital, David Cameron and Boris Johnson’s Government. Most of the questions the press are asking are about the relationship between Cameron, Rishi Sunak and Greensill over Covid loans. But there is… Read More The real threat to the NHS | Greensill, Topwood and Matt Hancock
It’s one year since Keir Starmer became leader of the Labour Party, and newspapers have been full of lengthy profile pieces trying to work out if he is doing badly. I haven’t changed my view that I set out at the start of the year: Starmer has by far and away the biggest problem in… Read More Starmer | One year on, no way back
20 tracks fo 90s dance music. Features some genuine club classics, mixed in with middle class white people rapping, endless attempts to make pedestrian indie music sound edgy by adding a Funky Drummer sample, and someone who seriously misunderstood what pirate radio means. Usual rules. 20 songs all jumbled together
At the time it seemed so cool and ironic and hip, and some of it has stood the test of time but most of it has faded faster than Tony Blair’s reputation…. It’s Brit Pop The usual rules. 20 tracks all jumbled together. You can mark your own scores, or email me the answer and… Read More 90s Pop Quiz | P2. Brit Pop
Last Easter we were in lockdown and I was doing an 80s pop quiz. A year on as lockdown draws to a halt here are 3 90s pop quizzes over 3 days Day 1 are 20 pop hits, mostly one hit wonders
No. We are not increasing our nuclear arsenal, despite what you might have read. The UK has announced plans to raise the cap on it’s nuclear stockpile by 40%. This has been announced as an increase in our nuclear arsenal, but it isn’t. We have increased the maximum size of our nuclear capacity, not the… Read More Is Britain really increasing it’s nuclear arsenal? | Does it matter?
Billy Idol weather. It’s a nice day for a light sweater. It’s a nice day for a …. cardigan! Come on!!
At the start of this year I and many others wrote that Boris’s deal would results in empty shelves in super markets: The story of empty shelves only partly came true. Some supermarkets have had empty shelves at different times, while specialist on line retailers have much bigger problems – one I use has roughly… Read More What happened to Brexit food shortages? | Why did Dutch customs confiscate a sandwich? | Why Boris’s deal is great for the EU and bad for the UK
This is the current position with death rates between the EU and the UK. As we can see we are currently doing incredibly well reducing the numbers of deaths, numbers are falling much faster here than in the EU. This is mainly due to the strict lockdown rather than the vaccine, although we can expect… Read More Is the UK doing better than the EU at managing Covid | Does history repeat itself?