Like many observers of politics, I have puzzled long and hard over why politicians make the decisions they do – and in particular, why they often make decisions that are in bizarre contradiction to their declared aims. Keir Starmer and Rachel Reeves’ mantra in the run-up to, and since, the July 2024 election was ‘growth’. […]
One of the great inventions of the 20th century has been plastic. If you take the time to study the extraordinary variety of its uses, you will see that much, possibly most, of the technological advances made in the past 50 years would have been impossible without plastic. It is everywhere; it is ubiquitous in […]
Lord Darzi’s report on the state of the NHS, released today, is damning. His review found that waiting times have worsened, very little progress has been made on early cancer diagnoses and the health service has been starved of capital investment. For a while, it looked like Wes Streeting was the man to come in […]
Universities, especially British universities, have a long and distinguished history of nurturing radical thinkers, innovators and iconoclasts in all areas of study and enquiry. No longer, it seems. At our oldest and most distinguished universities, Oxford and Cambridge, and indeed across the spectrum of UK universities, the spirit of free enquiry appears to have died, […]
