A long, slow death

Laurie Penny, from the Conservative Party conference a few weeks ago (that is to say, before the wheels fell off). The unfortunate Toby Young, a living monument to the English Art of failing upwards, is on one of their panels, and seems distressed to be the most liberal person here by far, making an asinine… Continue reading A long, slow death

Leadership stakes

Marina Hyde: The good news: Johnson’s on the way out. The bad news: look who’s on the way in… “Suella Braverman: Literally might as well run for leadership of Starfleet. Or Mensa.” Harsh, but fair.

The Dalek Invasion of Westminster

Hard to disagree: I miss the days when the only reason a British PM had to suddenly replace 40 ministers is because they were disintegrated in the latest Dalek attack. — James Davis Nicoll (@jamesdnicoll) July 7, 2022

Levelling-up

Spotted in the Guardian’s letters, a reader gives the government credit where it’s due: I am pleased to say I have spotted the first concrete evidence of the government putting its levelling-up agenda into action. While viewing information on my NHS app, I found the guide to foreign travel under Covid regulations, with the following… Continue reading Levelling-up

Good Law?

The Good Law Project poses a simple question about how senior UK government ministers have used their personal email systems for official business in recent years: [Why…] would Ministers choose to use personal accounts rather than official channels? They seem to believe this is a loophole to avoid scrutiny. If politicians think they can evade… Continue reading Good Law?

On the bright side…

Positively the only good thing about recent political developments in the UK is that they’re going to give Marina Hyde tons of new material: […] Arguably this morning’s most amusing development was Helen Grant resigning as Tory vice-chair to openly support Dominic Raab. Is this the same Dominic Raab who resigned in protest at a… Continue reading On the bright side…

LinkedIn: The Game

Beating LinkedIn: The Game is tricky, but not impossible. If you can believe this guy: The general goal of LinkedIn (the game) is to find and connect with as many people on LinkedIn (the website) as possible, in order to secure vaguely defined social capital and potentially further one’s career, which allows the player to… Continue reading LinkedIn: The Game

Harsh, but fair

Marina Hyde on the prospects we’ll all live happily ever after after tomorrow’s big event: Looking at the formbook, then, marrying into the Windsors has frequently proved a reverse fairytale. It starts with you becoming a princess, and unravels from there. Tied ends are loosed, and afters are not ever happy. Even so, the weddings… Continue reading Harsh, but fair

Museum Future

The biggest problem facing Danny Dorling’s tongue-in-cheek proposal for Our Museum Future is surely that it leaves Britain’s prosperity dependent upon the continued interest of the rest of the world in what the British royal family gets up to and where they live. Possibly not a great bet. If we work hard enough, we will… Continue reading Museum Future