Virginia McMillan/Creative Commons Now the PM and her partner, Clarke Gayford, have shown off their daughter to the world (video at the end of this post), it reminded me of my own experiences in the maternity ward many years ago. I’m not a parent at the time of writing: I’m talking about the 1980s […]
Read More… from The maternity ward of the early 1980s was a very different place
I bought Steven Parissien’s The Life of the Automobile: a New History of the Motor Car, which started off as a good history. I’m 300-odd pages in now and the mistakes are really worrying. There’s also a shocking lack of editing (one part repeated, albeit in different language, and spelling and grammatical mistakes) in […]
Read More… from Fun for car anoraks—till you get to the factual errors
That’s another British General Election done and dusted. I haven’t followed one this closely since the 1997 campaign, where I was backing John Major. Shock, horror! Hang on, Jack. Haven’t the media all said you are a leftie? Didn’t you stand for a left-wing party? Therein lies a fallacy about left- and right […]
I was very interested to see this graphic on the Geely Instagram account today: Spot the issue? I commented (and I wonder if they will delete it): ‘I would be a bit worried if the Geely GC7 found 71·5 mph its “flat out” speed. That would make it only as fast as a Citroën […]
Read More… from Geely Vision: as fast as a Citroën 2CV flat out
You’ve run for office, Jack. What is your favourite political speech? Something from MLK? JFK in Berlin? No, it was a completely fictional one, from the minds of Antony Jay and Jonathan Lynn: I’m a good European. I believe in Europe. I believe in the European ideal! Never again shall we repeat the bloodshed […]
Read More… from The greatest political speech, by Jim Hacker, MP
There’s a good reason (other than time) I do not watch Elementary, though I did try about 10 minutes’ worth before giving up. The last time I watched the US make Sherlock Holmes, it was the above: The Return of Sherlock Holmes (though I believe it was 4:3). CBS updated Holmes to the modern […]
In two elections, I told people some blarney on why I decided to run. In 2010: ‘I was working at Lew’s Diner and this guy had been picked on. I told him, “Stand tall, boy, show some respect for yourself. Do you think I’m going to spend the rest of my life in this […]
I have to admit I get a bit bored of those crying foul now that MG will launch an SUV, one which seems to have some parallels with the Ssangyong Korando C (left). They say that MG should have made sports cars as part of its revival, and that the brand should not adorn […]
This came up today at Victoria University where an old client of ours asked about my 2013 campaign. I remembered there was something about education that I wanted to address at the time. One of the stranger emails during 2013 came from a former classmate of mine at Rongotai College. A brilliant guy at […]
A small tribute to actor Lewis Collins on his passing earlier this week (originally published in Lucire Men). 1. The cars The Triumph Dolomite Sprint Lewis Collins’ character, William Andrew Philip Bodie (he was a ‘regal-looking baby’) had in The Professionals had more power than Doyle’s TR7. And his Capris were far cooler. So cool […]
Read More… from A tribute to Lewis Collins: the top five reasons he was awesome