A friend asked me this whether I’d seen any roach in the Kennet on my dog walk today.
It was a simple question, but it stayed with me. It brought back memories of a river I once knew through a float, a landing net and an optimism that my angling ability rarely justified.
It also prompted me to do some reading. Were the fish really disappearing, or was I remembering everything through the forgiving haze of thirty-odd years? Was I right ...
Goals, assists, records and an extraordinary ability to improve with age. At what point do we finally accept that Harry Kane is genuinely world class?
There is something quite extraordinary happening with Harry Kane. At an age when most strikers are beginning to lose a yard of pace, drop deeper to conserve energy and contemplate the lucrative business of winding down their careers in the Middle East, Kane appears to be getting better.
The ...
There is a strange British obsession with tax. We don’t just dislike paying too much of it, which is perfectly reasonable, we seem to have reached the point where taxation itself is regarded as some sort of government-sponsored mugging.
I’m All Right, Jack
This attitude didn’t appear overnight. Since the great surge of individualism in the Thatcher years, we have steadily been encouraged to think of tax primarily as money being ...
There are occasions when British current affairs stops resembling serious news and starts looking like an episode of Slow Horses written by the team behind Only Fools and Horses.
The extraordinary events around RAF Fairford may yet turn out to be extremely serious. Counter Terrorism Policing is still investigating, including the possibility of people acting on behalf of a foreign state. Five men were arrested on suspicion of explosives ...
A Nation Outraged
There was a phone-in on the radio this morning where callers were incandescent with rage. Properly furious. You could practically hear their blood pressure monitors packing up.
Was it about Reform UK and the questions surrounding its enormous donations?
Was it about reports that a Russian oligarch close to Putin helped fund Donald Trump Jr’s wedding celebrations? Trump says his son has since paid him back, which ...
