Arts
Jinnie’s Story, Book Nine – Chapter Thirty
Sir Nigel held up a hand and called the meeting to order. The audience fell silent, and Sir Nigel said, “Good morning, everyone. I understand there is a lot of speculation as to why you [more…]
Blog
Conservatives
Labour’s bad boys – Part 13 Neil Coyle
Neil Alan John Coyle, most often known as Neil Coyle, has been the Labour MP for Bermondsey and Old Southwark since 2015. He is apparently a bit of a motormouth, regularly flinging abuse about. His [more…]
19th Century
Joseph Swan: The Man Who Actually Invented the Lightbulb
A Sunderland chemist beat Edison by a year, accidentally invented synthetic fabric, lit up the world’s first electrically-powered street, and still got written out of history. It’s time to set the record straight. If you [more…]
Capitalism
Fuliza Republic
Kenya faces another wave of austerity. In this running photo essay series, we capture how it’s adjusting the lives of Kenyans and creating new social phenomena. John Githongo, Kenya’s anti-corruption czar, once recounted a story [more…]
Diary
A View From (The Shed By) The Greenhouse; Who’s The Puppet, Who’s The Puppeteer?
Why on earth would anyone cut a discarded length of plastic water pipe into (very roughly) two inch lengths, may or may not be the first question that springs to the mind of my long [more…]
Business
Labour Lack Economic Credibility
It will soon be the second anniversary of Labour’s 2024 election victory, but hardly a cause for celebration – especially for those of us who recognise that this government has reached the natural limits of [more…]
Arts
In Support ….of the Support – Part One
Once again I’ve found myself starting a piece for here where so much stuff has come into my mind I’ve had to split it. The lot of a support band is not great. On a [more…]
America
Ordo ab Chao
Ordo ab Chao is a bit of yer actual Latin meaning order out of chaos, it is most often associated with the rolled up trouser leg brigade aka the Freemasons and specifically the much maligned, [more…]
19th Century
The Scrapbook of Sherlock Holmes, 3/6: The Purloined Pincushion. Part 2 of 2
The following morning, as we were digesting a formidable breakfast of kidneys and bacon sent up by the admirable Mrs Hudson, Holmes was again amusing himself with his violin. After his usual discordant improvisation he [more…]