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. Art of the possible Nov 16, 2011 politics Is democracy melting away with as little fuss as the polar ice? Liveable London Oct 6, 2011 Bike campaigning in London is caught in a trap. The public approves of gentle, healthy, eco-friendly cycling, but it hates cyclists – scofflaws who Two kinds of London cycling campaign Oct 5, 2011 The recent proposal to rename the London Cycling Campaign (LCC) to ‘London Cyclists’ has been most helpful. There are two quite different kinds of Poetry and film Sep 3, 2011 My two favourite media. What we learned in Kyoto Jun 21, 2011 A couple of days riding in and around Kyoto reversed views on cycling I have formed over decades. Also, it showed me the part cycling might play in Landing May 19, 2011 At Immigration in Osaka a man in a US-style uniform – peaked cap, battledress-style top, white gloves – directs people reaching the head of the Heading East May 19, 2011 Charles de Gaulle Airport, Paris: the French don’t wander around munching and slurping like Americans and English do. They sit down. Still don’t Big Brother fears over new medical database for all Mar 19, 2010 politics Managing whom we trust and with what information is just part of life. Sooo mid-twentieth-century Nov 24, 2009 Parliamentary democracy? Sooo mid-twentieth-century. Who needs MPs to say what the people think when we can read their emails, intercept their phone In place of parliament Nov 24, 2009 Parliamentary democracy? Soooo mid-twentieth-century. Who needs MPs to say what the people think, when we can read their emails, intercept their Mourning parliamentary democracy Nov 24, 2009 “Graham Allen MP”, writes Anthony Barnett at OurKingdom, “has tried harder, with more patience and less thanks, to get Labour to embrace genuine The real threat to the life of the nation Sep 11, 2009 From David Marquand’s wonderful Britain Since 1918: The Strange Career of British Democracy, Lord Hoffman’s ‘thunderous opinion’ striking down the The dignity of the king Aug 7, 2009 In […] a democracy, the ordinary citizen is effectively a king, but a king in a constitutional democracy, a king whose powers are merely formal, Hydrogen peroxide Jul 5, 2009 wellbeing In dilution, hydrogen peroxide is an effective and inexpensive disinfectant – and seems to stimulate healing. John is John Jun 18, 2009 Just another John?‘Freeborn John’ Lilburne,17th-century championof civil liberty.“So prosecute me.” David Hume once remarked that the English had Waking up to the importance of sleep Apr 14, 2009 wellbeing A startling scientific paper reported alarming cognitive damage from repeatedly getting a little less than a full night’s sleep. I stopped setting my alarm clock. Next page