Blog awards, eh? What a gaggle of crap that is. It’s not just the staid and ossified elite who are always in these things (haven’t we had enough chances to vote for BoingBoing or Andrew “Overrated” Sullivan?), it’s the volume of egregious turdmerchants who still get in. 17,000 votes for Hot Air? I’m expecting Vint…
Read More blog awards, still direReduced blog; I’ve been working on a version of FixMyStreet for Symbian S60 devices. If you want snark, how about this? I always thought that the BMW not-minis were telling in themselves. Objects are an ideology made manifest. The original Mini was a minimal car, one designed to be even cheaper than the ones sold…
Read More no-one ever gets the truth from plastic manOK, the last post wasn’t totally serious. But is it too much to say that John Redwood is back? He’s been given a committee to chair, which sounds like a kick to touch, but we live in committee times. The Government is handling the economic crisis through a combination of outside committee-ists and a civil…
Read More the time has come to shoot you downThe perfect Tory would be: As competent as George Osborne As Eurosceptic as Kenneth Clarke As relevant as Norman Tebbit As normal as John Redwood As experienced as David Cameron As intellectually brilliant as Francis Maude As close to export industries as Stuart Wheeler As credible with the City as George Osborne As committed to…
Read More The Perfect ConservativeSo, we looked into the fake phone call to Mr 10%’s office. We even did a little HOWTO. If you recall, we concluded that you needed a bulk SIP carrier sufficiently unscrupulous or clue-light that they didn’t verify the CLI string you passed them, but who hadn’t yet offended at least one major telco in…
Read More your voice across the line gives me a strange sensationHere’s an interesting scientific paper about Palestinians and Israeli settlers. The experiments asked each group questions intended to judge how willing they were to compromise. Then, they asked the questions again, but threw in a side-offer, for example of economic aid or third-power security guarantees. Interestingly, all the groups split into two identifiable types; some…
Read More I don’t need you, I can’t buy you, I can’t hurt you…The Grauniad asked 21 of its opinion writers to make predictions for 2009. As a service, and to force Daniel Davies’ hand into starting his planned Predictions-L mailing list, I’ve shorterised each one and reflected briefly on it. The full texts are here. 1) Jackie Ashley thinks the Lib Dems may be powerbrokers in a…
Read More predictions are difficult, except about Martin Kettle