Blogs

And this, our life, exempt from public haunt, finds tongues in trees, books in the running brooks, sermons in stones, and good in everything. One of the standard questions that BMJ asks when we visit merchants for one of our profile feature, is about the make-up of their customer base. …

I’m glad to see you back. I thought you were gone forever. Nine years ago, 33 million adults in the United Kingdom went to the polling station to vote in the European Union Referendum. The turnout was 72% of the electorate, one of the highest in recent years. There has …

For last year’s words belong to last year’s language And next year’s words await another voice. And to make an end is to make a beginning. When you’re in a hole, the saying goes, you should stop digging. So far, so sensible. But what do you do when you’ve stopped …

There is nothing either good or bad, but thinking makes it so The UK political landscape was ripe for reform. We knew that, but we didn’t necessarily mean it the way that it turned out last week. Has the political landscape in the UK changed after Thursday May 1? Yes. …

Common sense is not so common I know they say ‘if you’re the traffic, you shouldn’t blame the traffic’, and I get the sentiment behind that. Still, allow me to have a rant about something that impacts all of us just trying to get through a day’s work. Infrastructure work. …

Be not afraid of greatness. Some are born great, some achieve greatness, and some have greatness thrust upon ’em. There is so much out there that’s a bit grim and depressing, even though we are in Spring, the season of rebirth and new growth. The Trump tariffs are tanking the …

In this world nothing can be said to be certain, except death and taxes No matter how haggard and cynical I get, I am still one of those people who gets a tiny bit excited when I spot people I’ve seen on the telly in the flesh so to speak …

O! Let me not be mad, not mad, sweet heaven; keep me in temper; I would not be mad! The Trumpian horror show that’s going on across the Pond, and its equally horrific economic consequences for the rest of the world are just the very nasty-tasting cherry on top of …

The worth of a State, in the long run, is the worth of the individuals composing it …the louder the noise they make as they stumble. As headline figures go, it’s pretty grim. Travis Perkins, the behemoth that for years has bestrode the UK merchanting sector like a, well, a …

The offspring of riches: Pride, vanity, ostentation, arrogance, tyranny Oops. Although, as cock-ups go, the adding of a journalist to a secret US Government chat-group is about as far from ‘oops’ as I am from being elected President of France (maybe I’m just not in the right WhatsApp groups). There …