Polarisation and Loneliness | What will we be like when it’s all over? Marx vs Morrissey?

Lots of people have told me that they believe the current coronacrisis will bring us all together, and heal the current divides in society. Some have gone so far as to tell me that it will make Britain more liberal or progressive. I don’t think we should make this assumption. At the risk of stating … Read more

Pop Quiz | Phil and friends

If you thought that last weeks quiz was too trendy for you this should be good news. This week features 18 tracks which no-one has ever accused of being fashionable or cool. The sort of 80s pop songs your 6th form Geography teacher would buy to play on their new CD player. Apologies if I’ve … Read more

Guest Quiz!

This week we have a guest quiz written by top quizmaster Pete Blakeman All you have to do is work out whether the name is a West Indian cricketer, or a village somewhere in England. Enjoy! [quiz-cat id=”3189″]

Pop Quiz | New Wave P1.

While are all in lockdown I’m going to run a weekly Saturday morning pop quiz, focussing on the 1980s, which means from the very late 70s to the very early 90s. Each week will take a different musical theme from the era, so that people with different musical tastes get an even chance. This weeks … Read more

Why are some health systems doing better than others?

Most people will have seen this graph, or a variant of it over the last few days showing the spread of Covid-10 Coronavirus: It’s clear from this graph and lots of others in the media that some countries are doing much better than others at controlling the spread of the disease. Some of these numbers … Read more

The economics of mods and skins

Last month I compared rates of violent crime between my generation and my daughters. It featured lots of teenage nostalgia, and was the most popular blog I have written in ages. As a follow up I wanted to extend the comparison to the generation before me – the baby boomers. We think of the 60s … Read more

Istanbul

I was lucky enough to spend a few days in Istanbul over half term. It’s been 25 years since I last visited. It is still one of the loveliest and most atmospheric cities in the world, and I hope you don’t mind some holiday snaps below. It’s a bargain destination right now, thanks to terrorism, … Read more