Economics
UK Autumn Budget 2025 Summary
Tax and spend, tax and spend, tax and spend. © Swiss Bob 2025
Politics
Authoritarianism
Why Courage — Not Convenience — Is the Foundation of Free Speech
In an age obsessed with stability, optimisation, and institutional authority, we are losing sight of the simplest truth: freedom of speech is the core condition for national and international security. Not because speech itself is [more…]
Culture
A View From The Sofa; Ennui And Pain
I’ve hardly been out of the house since I got out of hospital. I’m sure some of you will know what it’s like, believing you’re fifty four when you’re actually twenty years older than that [more…]
Labour
Safe Routes
We never stop hearing about safe routes for migrants as opposed to paying some dodgy Albanian or Afghan, jumping in a dinghy and braving the waves for a few hundred metres to a waiting taxi [more…]
Animals
Larry’s Diary, Week Three Hundred And Six
Monday Good morning my friends, a horrible grey and wet morning today. It makes a change not to be reporting Legohead’s problems this morning but instead taking about the BBC. It is rudderless this morning, [more…]
Biography
Shabana Mahmood. Avoid.
As only the third female Lord Chancellor since Eleanor of Provence in 1253, upon being elevated to the role 771 years later present Home Secretary, Shabana Mahmood, eulogised during her acceptance speech. “I must say [more…]
Philosophy
Dog-walking Thoughts No 4 – There Is A Natural Order To All Things
Nature is the great repairer. This, I know, is not a Nobel-prize winning discovery. We see it everywhere every year and certainly where man has moved on and abandoned anywhere to the ‘elements’. Nature cleans [more…]
Labour
Mahmood well off message
From a woman who says the first thing she thinks about on waking up is Islam. From a woman who in October 2015 visited refugee camps in Greece helping to deliver food aid. From a [more…]
Animals
Larry’s Diary, Week Three Hundred And Five
Monday Good morning, my friends. Back to the old routine, a trip down the chilly garden before my Felix. The Robber Reeves house rental saga got a bit worse over the weekend when it emerged [more…]