“Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic” — Arthur C Clarke’s Third Law As a new decade is about to begin I am drawn to thinking about the rate at which the world is changing and our ability to keep up with that change. At the start of 1950 I was approaching my second […]

As I write we are just over 2 months from Halloween, on which date our Government has promised to take us out of Europe, “do or die”. Since no withdrawal agreement has been passed by the House of Commons our leaders are relying on the EU giving way on a number of demands that might […]

We used to live in northern Italy, close to the Mediterranean and the French border, where we still have a house and a car, so a couple of weeks ago we flew out, spent a few days tidying up the garden then loaded up the car with stuff we wanted in England and drove it […]

That includes me, of course. I see many articles that try to explain how national finance works but most I find completely impenetrable. Recently, however, something clicked, the penny dropped and I think I can begin to see what it’s all about now. So before I lose it again, here’s my take on the subject. […]

“Spring cleaning”. What a fine old expression, bringing to mind celebrating the arrival of warm weather with a jolly dash through the house with a duster leaving everything spic and span. At least, that’s my childhood memory of it; watching my mother, that is – I never had to do it myself. And in my […]

The other day a freak worm-hole in the space-time continuum delivered to me fragments of news reporting from some time around the middle of 2020; evidently items about the ongoing riots that started soon after Britain crashed out of the EU with no deal in March 2019. It seems the sudden loss of subsidies from […]

Defeat is always hard to take, but no more so than when snatched from the jaws of victory. It was all going so well. After decades of slow, patient effort The Project was drawing close to its successful conclusion. Everything was in place and victory was assured. In baronial halls up and down the land […]

The Chinese curse you with “May you live in interesting times”, and the last six months have been nothing if not interesting. From the election of Trump and the non-election of Wilders and Le Pen to the self-destruction of May there has been nothing like it, in my memory at least. I’ve struggled at times […]

At the time of writing it’s just 2 days to the US election, with most of the polls predicting a narrow Clinton victory. Polls have of course been becoming notoriously and increasingly unreliable, as recent events have shown. In the past you could assume that the undecided would at the last minute come down on […]

So there we were in 1912, partying like there would be no tomorrow, but aboard all was not well. Many of the passengers resented the time it took to get from Southampton to New York – surely there was a quicker, less bureaucratic route? A passenger by the name of Fromage, a jolly chap with […]