BoJo the clown May 7, 2021 politics Is the prime minister Britain’s best clown ever? Days are of two kinds May 6, 2021 wellbeing Days are of two kinds, alike and not Trollope May 3, 2021 arts & wellbeing Some people grasp early in life that the world is not divided into saints and monsters. For the rest of us, there is Trollope. I wish I had read him earlier. What we saw in Roswell May 2, 2021 journal The smart money is that we are not alone. That will change the way we see ourselves. Forever. The orkestra bows out May 1, 2021 arts The Orkestra del Sol ends fifteen years of channeling musical anarchy from Latin America and the Balkans. Good luck — and thank you! Imagine Hampstead village and South End Green with no through traffic Apr 30, 2021 cycling & politics Changes to the road network to promote active travel create congestion. It’s not the plan gone wrong; it is the plan. What makes this so dangerous Apr 29, 2021 politics They were careless people … they smashed up things and creatures and then retreated back into their money or their vast carelessness, or whatever it was that kept them together, and let other people clean up the mess they had made. Rural rides Apr 22, 2021 journal Working from my mother’s flat in Hampshire this week. Lunch at the local pub, reached by a walk through the woods. Crank it up Apr 18, 2021 arts If elevator music deadened your ear to the energy of The Four Seasons, you are not alone. Rediscovering our animal nature Apr 17, 2021 politics & wellbeing The trouble started after Eden. We began seeing ourselves as separate from the natural world. Destined for an afterlife. We need to accept our mortality. The high streets of Hampstead Apr 15, 2021 politics High streets everywhere were already changing before the pandemic. Hampstead is lovely, but no exception. The beneficiaries of the status quo are in no rush to change Apr 15, 2021 politics If we are serious about the Paris agreement, we have to disrupt that cosy relationship between business and government. Among the many things Billy Pilgrim could not change were the past, the present, and the future. Apr 14, 2021 wellbeing — Kurt Vonnegut, Slaughterhouse Five Animal Farm: Special illustrated edition Apr 14, 2021 arts & politics Rereading Animal Farm after half a century, I am struck by how much I dislike it. Nuclear-armed rogue states May 24, 2016 politics & views Who more flagrantly breaches the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty: Iran or Britain? The Sixth Extinction May 24, 2014 politics & views The Earth’s fossil record shows five mass extinctions, in which many or most species disappeared over a few months or centuries. We are now nearing the end of the Sixth. Food of love Aug 4, 2013 arts My favourite creation myth: God made humans just so he could listen to the music we make. War on Terror May 24, 2013 politics & views The “War on Terror” is a monstrous sham, a catch-all slogan spun onto the 9/11 attack and now available to justify domestic repression, violence Terror is a tactic Sep 3, 2012 politics & views Terror is a tactic used successfully by states and groups alike. Its essence is violence to civilians; any weapon qualifies. Global worming Aug 4, 2012 politics Like every species on a roll, we’re gobbling everything in sight until we are fighting and starving in our own effluent. Next page