Blog
Conrad Black’s £1,200 biography
I know he's a fascinating man, but why does the biography of Conrad Black entitled Robber Baron: Lord Black of Crossharbour, by George Tombs cost a hefty £1,274.25 plus postage at Politicos where it is reduced from its normal price of £1,699? I don't imagine...
Drinking to destruction
I love statistics, but not these. Today we are shockingly told that 1,000 binge drinkers are hospitalised in Britain every day. This is a subject which is often on my mind since losing my friend Sue to drink, as well as Celia, who was found to be four...
Another PC World complaint
I decided to buy a flatscreen TV with my £100 vouchers from PC World after Lord Kalms took up my complaint following the poor service of their Tech Guys. I have just discovered that the one I bought, and was told by their staff would be perfectly suitable, an...
On the road to manhood
I love surprising people, and yesterday I surprised my 17-year-old son David by collecting him from the railway station after school with L plates on my car. He was to drive home. David couldn't wait to get behind the wheel. We zig-zagged around the car park a bit...
Plastic bags don’t grow on trees
Banning plastic bags is one of my pet subjects, a topic close to my heart after researching and writing an academic paper on this subject. So I'm delighted to read that China, a great provider of plastic goods, is in fact banning free plastic bags, those horrid,...
Losing my cleaning lady
I hope I don't get any unexpected visitors over the next day or two. My cleaning lady has given up the mop for a new job and it has left me in a bit of a dither. Pat helped me out for four years and became a friend, and before that Nicky took care of my domestic...
Defra’s £100,000 staff trebles – and a £63 million fine
Here's one for Burning Our Money. The number of Defra staff earning more than £100,000 has trebled in the past five years. This cannot surely be linked to their performance as it struggles with waste and recycling, climate change, floods, coastal erosion, supporting...
How could pollsters get it so wrong?Does it come down to race?
Crikey, what an amazing result following pollsters' predictions of another sweeping victory for Democrat Barack Obama in New Hampshire. He seemed a dead cert to win ahead of rival Hillary Clinton, but virtually all of the late polling on the Democratic side proved to...
Changing cultural beliefs on prostitution
I had a very productive meeting with the dynamic Dr Carrie Pemberton yesterday, founder of CHASTE - Churches Alert to Sex Trafficking in Europe. She is thrilled that Home Office Minister Vernon Coker will be speaking at their major conference in London this month,...