George Orwell was a huge influence on me when I was younger. I read Nineteen Eighty Four as a thirteen year old and thought it was quite possibly the greatest thing I’d ever been exposed to up until that point, with the possible exception of the first Ramones album. I went on to read all […]
Archives for February 2014
THOUGHTS REGARDING THE NEW HANSARD SOCIETY REPORT ON PMQS
The Hansard Society has made some recommendations around how to improve perceptions of Prime Minister’s Questions in a new report entitled Tuned in or Turned off? Public attitudes to Prime Minister’s Questions. Also, how to get more people outside of the Westminster bubble to watch the bloody thing every week. I like some of the […]
MARK HARPER’S RESIGNATION AND THE ILLEGAL IMMIGRATION DEBATE
Over the weekend Mark Harper, the now ex-Minister of State for Immigration, resigned. The reason, of which I’m sure you’re all familiar already, is that he had been caught employing an illegal immigrant as a cleaner. Many will (and have already been) using this as a chance to enjoy the schadenfreude of it all; […]
NATIONAL VOTERS REGISTRATION DAY: MY THOUGHTS FROM OLD KENT ROAD
“I don’t know. I don’t care.” This was the response I received from a middle aged woman of medium height and medium build to the question I’d been asking all day: “Are you registered to vote?” I was blocking her path into the ASDA on Old Kent Road as she answered me, and I stopped […]
ENDING KEVIN PIETERSEN’S ENGLAND CAREER IS A BIG MISTAKE
My defining memory of Kevin Pietersen as an England player comes from a match in 2010. It was Day Three of the England v Pakistan test at the Oval. I was there on the day with ten friends; it was my stag do. Possibly the magnitude of the event for me personally is what has […]