Neil O’Brien, in his own words, is the Director of Policy Exchange, an independent think tank working for better public services, a stronger society and a more dynamic economy. He also thinks he knows what makes people tick politically. What do you think?
I’m going to assume that you’ve just ploughed your way through [...]
Posts from ‘January, 2011’
Think Tank Wank
“Dark Forces”
I think we have an early contender for arguably the most ludicrous excuse of 2011.
Now we all know the lurid story about former Sky Sports presenters Andy Gray (if true that is sheer class) and Richard Keys and their quite incredibly sexism which frankly would have shamed a ’70s Uzbek sitcom. The simple truth [...]
The perils of literature…
Tolkien claimed to be genuinely surprised when, in March 1956, he received a letter from one Sam Gamgee, who had heard that his name was in The Lord of the Rings but had not read the book. Tolkien replied on March 18:
“Dear Mr. Gamgee,
It was very kind of you to write. You can imagine my [...]
A request concerning Tunisia.
As people may, or may not, remember…..
The present wave of protests in the Arab world started when a man burned himself alive in Tunisia - in protest against the police preventing him selling fruit and veg without a permit (he was an educated man with a university degree, thus showing the folly of the subsidy [...]
David Cameron Is Officially A Useless Twat
I was sort of going to do a big long post I’ve been trying to write for years about, well mainly about Herbert Marcuse and the Frankfurt School and stuff, then I read this at the Telegraph’s Egypt live updatey pagey thing-
David Cameron, the Prime Minister, has joined Nicolas Sarkozy, the French President, and Angela [...]
Ride to ruin and the world’s ending…
I’d like to talk about the Star Wars prequels… Now I am an IT tech so I know exactly what a fist can do to the screen of a Dell laptop so just don’t, right, OK. Stay with me.
I perhaps had a bigger investment than most because A New Hope was the first ever [...]
The Tudors
I have dipped in and out of the BBC’s latest bodice-ripping yarn.
My history is sketchy but to quote my brother it was, “best bollocks”. It promised “scenes of a sexual nature” which if I’m honest is probably why I watched it.
Now about ten, fifteen years ago AA Gill the Sunday Times TV critic [...]
Jacqui Smith to make porn show for BBC
Last night she said: ‘As I know from my personal experience, porn fascinates us – media and public alike. But we actually know very little about what it’s like to work in the industry and what porn is doing to our society, our children and our relationships.
‘In making this programme, I’ve been able to [...]
Schadenfreude
Now I make no apologies for saying I hate the Co-op. The Co-op doesn’t even pretend to compete on price or service. It competes on Righteousness. Having said that it is a necessary weevil because where I live there is a butcher, a baker, a deli, a bakery and a newsagent and the Co-op. Now [...]
Holy Flamin’ **** Batman!
I have heard this song a lot (in various re-mixes) and I liked it or rather it dug into me - same thing. Popular music is rarely Johnnie Cash though is it?
Apart from the obvious fact that I would rather puke on the Shroud of Turin and then neatly fold it than poke anything [...]
Barack Obama and the State of the Union speech.
According to Barack Obama government spending is “investment” - indeed such “investment” is vital in the areas of government education (”like Korea” accept that the Republic of Korea spends vastly LESS than the United States on government schools and the teachers are nonunion whereas Barack DEPENDS on the government sector unions, especially the Bill Ayers [...]
The Prime Minister of Australia is a scumbag.
One reaction I might get to the title of this post is “how dare you use such language about a women - and you are not even Australian”.
As for not being Australian - Australians have never been exactly shy about commenting upon politicians in other countries (and there is no reason they should be shy [...]
Taking Things Seriously. Lesson One: Stay off the telly.
You may have noticed that all-round top bloke and man of good taste James Dellingpole was done up like a kipper by the BBC’s Horizon programme the other night. Dr. North posts at length on the subject.
The question he was asked - “If you were suffering from cancer, would you rather be treated by the [...]
This kind of thing
One of the problems I’ve found in coming up with stuff to post here is that whenever I read something that I think would be worth linking to or commenting on, I realise that it’s on Samizdata, or EURef, or somewhere else that I know most of this blog’s readers will be familiar with themselves. [...]
Domodedovo
I hate to say I was proved right here but I was.
Lets us for a moment assume that screening for those boarding aircraft is 100% perfect and that no bomb ever gets on a plane. Well…
It also occurs to me that security opera is bad for safety. Let’s assume that these vicious measures [...]
